Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery: Feb 8

This week on Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery the guest is Olympian Cathy Freeman.

Catherine Freeman was born in Mackay in 1973. Even as a youngster her lightning speed made her stand out. Her love of running culminated in metaphorically carrying the weight of the nation, and she delivered gold. An Order of Australia recipient, she’s also the only person ever chosen as both Australian and Young Australian of the Year.

An inspiration to all Australians, she founded the Cathy Freeman Foundation in 2007 to provide education and opportunities for young indigenous Australians.

In this episode, Cathy travels back to her home town where she picks up Julia kerbside and they drive to out to her first home. When they walk in, Cathy isn’t even sure it’s the right house she’s so thrown by how different it looks. She describes a happy, laid back house where as the big sister to two little brothers, she took on some of the mothering duties. She talks about her innate love of running and the exhilarating sense of freedom that she’s always derived from it.

Cathy talks about the important role her mother, father and stepfather played in helping to shape her into a champion athlete. She names her older sister, Anne Marie, who died some years ago, as her greatest inspiration. At St Joseph’s Primary School, Cathy steps Julia through her very first race – a race she almost didn’t win because as a shy five year old she tried to hide in the toilets rather than compete.

At ‘Cathy Freeman Oval’, they meet Cathy’s friend, Cindy Willet, who trained with her at Little Athletics and shared an obsession with Whitney Houston. Cathy talks candidly about the difficulties of being a shy young girl who simply wanted to run and the cost of fame that came with it. She describes winning the 400 metres as a ‘beautiful nightmare’ -almost too much to bare for a young girl.

8pm Wednesday on ABC.