Matildas captain Sam Kerr has repeatedly said she wants to lead Australia to World Cup glory and create her own ‘Cathy Freeman moment’.
But Kerr and her Tillies teammates last week received a very special visit from the Australian sporting legend herself.
The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games 400m gold medallist Freeman, a proud Kuku Yalanji woman, is the sporting hero of ‘over half the team’, and joined the team in Melbourne last Wednesday.
Kerr told Freeman: “You’re an inspiration to the whole team … You’ve been an idol for all of us for so long. What you did for us as a country, hopefully we can replicate even half of that. We’ll remember this night for the rest of our careers. It’s been amazing.”
“A lot of girls were very emotional,” Matildas veteran Aivi Luik said.
“I still can’t believe that happened because a couple years ago, we were going through some questions about who your sporting hero is and why, and over half the team said that Cathy Freeman was their hero.
“The staff, because of that, tried to get her in, and bless her heart, she came in.
“She doesn’t do a lot of public speaking but she did that for us. We asked her questions informally and she spoke back to us just like she was a friend, and we got a lot of good insight from that.”
FEATURE: How 2019 WC heartbreak exposed Matildas’ great flaw … and the brutal journey to fix it
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP PREVIEW PODCASTS – LISTEN NOW!
PART ONE: Preview of EVERY group and which players could catch your eye
PART TWO: Three burning Matildas questions and why their Group B rivals are a threat
Freeman told the Aussies: “The power of you just being here is unimaginable. It’s beyond your wildest dreams what you’re going to be able to do.
“You’re going to be able to get into the blood of everybody who is on the journey with you. It’s just a crazy, wild ride.
“You’re writing your name in history, ladies. And you should be really proud of that.”
Luik said: “She told us was that we know who we are, we know why we do this, and while we want to perform and give results for others outside the circle, at the end of the day, you believe in yourself and you do it for yourself.”
“All athletes do what they do because they love the sport, and (Freeman said) to not lose track of that, and that gives you the confidence to go out there and do your job.”
Luik praised Freeman’s resilience to perform despite having the “weight of the nation” on her shoulders at the Olympics.
“She was just one and we’re a whole team, so I think we’re quite lucky in that regard that we have our friends and teammates there to support each other,” Luik said,
“We came away from that feeling a little bit of a weight off our shoulders, and just completely inspired.”
Freeman and her family joined the Matildas for a team dinner and was presented with a signed team jersey.
Australia’s opening match of the tournament is against Ireland on Thursday night in Sydney – at the same stadium where Freeman made history in 2000.
MORE NEWS
MATILDAS SQUAD: What you need to know about every Aussie
FIXTURES: All 64 World Cup games and full Matildas schedule
EVERY SQUAD: 736 players, one trophy — Every World Cup squad locked in
In February, Sam Kerr said: “The legacy left there from that one special moment at the 2000 Olympics was everlasting for all of us.
“Ask half the girls in the team, their idol growing up was Cathy Freeman.
“That’s the legacy we want to leave – that we inspire the nation, we move the nation to believe in women’s football, believe in the Matildas.”
And Kerr also wrote in her book, My Journey To The World Cup: “I loved her so much.
“She was so fast and strong, and she coped so well with the unbelievable pressure that was put on her. I watched her race in the Sydney 2000 Olympics over and over and over again.”
Leave a Reply