Cathy Freeman’s 400-metre Olympic gold voted Australia’s greatest sporting moment

Cathy Freeman’s 400-metre dash to gold while carrying the weight of a nation at the Sydney 2000 Olympics has been voted the winner of the inaugural Guardian poll of Australia’s greatest sporting moments.

Freeman’s achievement attracted more than twice the number of reader votes than the moment finishing second, Cortnee Vine’s winning penalty against France in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

In third place was another penalty, the 2005 strike by John Aloisi to send the Socceroos to the Men’s World Cup in Germany.

Tens of thousands of votes were received in the poll, which ran over 10 days in January.

Freeman rose to the occasion on 25 September at the cusp of the new millennium, less than two weeks after she surprised onlookers by lighting the flame at the opening ceremony of the Games.

That appearance built an already expectant country into a frenzy, ahead of a race that had been the subject of extensive conjecture in the lead-up.

Freeman’s main rival was France’s Marie-José Pérec, the defending champion who was afflicted by injury and illness and had barely run a competitive race in the years leading up to the Games.

Pérec fled Australia days before her showdown with Freeman, shining the spotlight even brighter on the Queenslander.

In front of 110,000 fans in Stadium Australia, the then-27-year-old wore a full-body aerodynamic suit and ran a race to perfection to take gold over Jamaican Lorraine Fenton by just under a half second.

More than 20 years later, the moment continues to have an impact on Australia and its athletes The usually reclusive Freeman visited the Matildas ahead of the 2023 World Cup. Captain Sam Kerr had declared the team wanted to create their own “Cathy Freeman moment” at the tournament.

Less than a month later, the Matildas held the attention of the nation during the quarter-final against France. Vine’s penalty at the end of a marathon shootout secured a semi-final berth, and was regarded by Guardian readers as greater than every Australian sporting moment other than Freeman’s race.

Freeman thanked readers for their votes, calling the win an “absolute honour”.

“I can’t quite believe my 2000 Olympic victory has been named the greatest sporting moment,” she said.

“Wow. What an absolute honour it is indeed. Thank you to one and all for your special votes. I’m slightly shy with it all but proud just the same.”

After starting with 50 moments, the Guardian Australia poll was whittled down to 10 finalists. Only three of those occurred before Freeman’s victory: Peter Norman’s support for the protest of US sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the 1968 Olympic podium, the America’s Cup victory in 1982, and Shane Warne’s 1993 “ball of the century”.

Football was the only sport with three moments in the top 10. Kerr’s goal in the World Cup semi-final against England finished in ninth place.

Here’s how the top 10 moments polled in the final round of voting:

1. Cathy Freeman wins 400m gold at the Sydney Olympics – 8,082 votes
2. Cortnee Vine slots the winning penalty in the Matildas’ epic World Cup shootout against France – 3,568 votes
3. John Aloisi scores the winning penalty to send the Socceroos to the World Cup – 1,964 votes
4. Steven Bradbury wins speed-skating Olympic gold from fifth place after everyone falls – 1,440 votes
5. Peter Norman supports the Black power salute on 200m medal podium – 1,379 votes
6. Australia II wins the America’s Cup – 1,244 votes
7. Cadel Evans becomes the first Australian to win the Tour de France – 1,077 votes
8. Shane Warne bowls the “ball of the century” to English batter Mike Gatting – 931 votes
9. Sam Kerr scores a spectacular goal against England in the Women’s World Cup semi-final – 661 votes
10. Adam Goodes performs an Indigenous war dance on the field after scoring for the Swans – 646 votes