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Cathy Freeman's goal for 1996 was to win the 400m title at the Olympic
Games in Atlanta, but to do so, she would have to defeat defending
champion Marie-Jose Perec. Cathy's campaign got off to a great start
when she ran 49.85sec in Melbourne on 29 February, becoming in the
process the first Australian woman to break 50sec for the distance.
More fast times followed in Europe. She won at Gateshead in 49.96sec on
30 June, and then twice more bettered her Australian national record,
winning at Oslo in 49.81sec on 5 July, and at London in 49.59sec seven
days later.
It wasn't until the Olympic Games in late July that she
competed against Perec, who had also had a good lead up to the Games
with a best time of 49.45sec. The stage was set for their showdown when
they both won their respective semi-finals, Freeman in 50.32sec, and
Perec in a potentially demoralising 49.19sec, well inside Freeman's
best. They lined up for the final with Freeman in lane 4 and Perec
inside her in lane 3. Perec got off to her usual fast start, and
quickly started eating in to the stagger between them, Freeman slowly
started to reduce the gap and they entered the straight with Perec half a
metre in front. Freeman attacked again, and with the rest of the field
well adrift, these two great athletes battled each other down the
straight, with Perec finally proving too strong.
Their times were
phenomenal. Perec recorded 48.25sec, well below her previous best of
48.83sec, and Freeman's time was 48.65sec, smashing Kathy Cook's
Commonwealth record. Freeman got some bittersweet revenge in a
post-Olympic meet at Brussels on 23 August, downing Perec (49.72sec) in a
time of 49.48sec. (Ron Casey)
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