Top 50 Cathy Freeman Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Peace, unity and harmony!”

— Cathy Freeman

2. “I want to keep my private life private.”

— Cathy Freeman

3. “I am very determined and the sport is my passion. I believe I am born for running.”

— Cathy Freeman

4. “I’m so lucky. I have such a great support system. All I have to do is run.”

— Cathy Freeman

5. “Asthma is treatable and well can be controlled.”

— Cathy Freeman

6. “Disappointment and adversity can be catalysts for greatness. There’s something particularly exciting about being the hunter, as opposed to the hunted. And that can make for powerful energy.”

— Cathy Freeman

7. “When I’m in a bad mood, I don’t listen.”

— Cathy Freeman

8. “You got to try and reach for the stars or try and achieve the unreachable.”

— Cathy Freeman

9. “I quite clearly have made the right decision in my heart, retirement was the way.”

— Cathy Freeman

10. “Money makes life easier but I don’t want to be rich, not at all.”

— Cathy Freeman

11. “Twenty seconds before a race, there’s absolute focus. The key thing is to achieve relaxation, but at the same to have absolute total control. You’ve got to find the balance between being totally ready to go and being really at peace with yourself as well.”

— Cathy Freeman

12. “My feelings tried to control me on my run. I had to concentrate fully on forthcoming running and success. I wanted to triumph.”

— Cathy Freeman

13. “Realise there is always somebody else in the World who’s not coping as well as you are.”

— Cathy Freeman

14. “My last real race was at the Olympics in Sydney in 2000.”

— Cathy Freeman

15. “I don’t like people looking at me; I hate the attention.”

— Cathy Freeman

16. “I’ve had my fair share of being dismissed. But I’m only about to turn 30. And when I finish running, I’m going to be a dangerous woman.”

— Cathy Freeman

17. “I’m certainly not ready to go changing the world overnight right now. I’m completely uninformed about a lot of our issues, a lot of the nation’s issues, not just Indigenous issues.”

— Cathy Freeman

18. “I like looking feminine and I enjoy being a role model. I enjoy being a woman. It all comes down to having the confidence to be who you are.”

— Cathy Freeman

19. “The thing I do best is laugh.”

— Cathy Freeman

20. “I’m learning in my own sort of quiet, out-of-the-spotlight kind of way. I certainly have my general point of view about the government, and the future of our children. I’m certainly learning all the time, I’m happy to be an onlooker for now.”

— Cathy Freeman

21. “I think the greatest amount of pressure is the pressure I place on myself. So in a way I chose to be alone.”

— Cathy Freeman

22. “I’m drinking lots of herbal tea.”

— Cathy Freeman

23. “My mind is pretty made up that life for Cathy Freeman will be as an unmarried woman from now on.”

— Cathy Freeman

24. “I feel like I’ve reached an age where I can relax a little bit with the knowledge of what I’ve been through, take all that experience and use it. I love the challenge of trying to get back to where I’ve been, and beyond it.”

— Cathy Freeman

25. “I lie around the floor with my cats Billy and Jazz or watch DVDs with my best friends.”

— Cathy Freeman

26. “I have time to breathe, time to be myself more often, I am a lot more relaxed and less guarded.”

— Cathy Freeman

27. “Australians are a fantastic bunch of people but the attention can be overwhelming for someone like me.”

— Cathy Freeman

28. “When I was 18 years old, about to develop my sportsman career, the asthma complaints became already some years before.”

— Cathy Freeman

29. “For athletes traditionally it’s such a fantastic stepping stone to greater things down the track and in the future. Don’t undermine the Commonwealth Games!”

— Cathy Freeman

30. “My story has resonated around the world. I am just Catherine, I just like to run. And I’ll run with opportunities.”

— Cathy Freeman

31. “I have a friend who, if she has a bad hair day, it affects her whole mood because it is part of her sexuality, her confidence. I don’t have that problem any more.”

— Cathy Freeman

32. “It is my second visit to Korea since the International Junior Athletic Championships in 1992. Both then and now, I felt Korea is an interesting country and the people are very kind.”

— Cathy Freeman

33. “People could see in me who I am now, an Olympic champ, the best in the world.”

— Cathy Freeman

34. “The last sort of really low-key race I ran, I realized with about a hundred metres to go, that my heart just wasn’t in it. I wasn’t trying my hardest, I didn’t care to compete against the girls I was up against. That spoke a lot about where my heart was taking me-which was off the track.”

— Cathy Freeman

35. “I don’t have a lot of regrets in my life.”

— Cathy Freeman

36. “I’m doing something now where I’m going to have to learn so much and that takes time nurturing, those kinds of relationships.”

— Cathy Freeman

37. “I made my first Australian senior team when I was 16, first Olympics when I was 19, and I retired. I’m 32, I retired four years ago, so a good third of my life or nearly a third of my life has been all about running.”

— Cathy Freeman

38. “I was running since I was 10. Since grade one at school people looked at me and thought, oh gosh she can really run, she’s a natural.”

— Cathy Freeman

39. “This occasion is personally very meaningful and I hope to visit Korea again if I have the chance.”

— Cathy Freeman

40. “I took only twice a time-out, once, when I was hurt, and a second time, when I much felt I was exhausted out of personal reasons.”

— Cathy Freeman

41. “I made publicity contracts with Nike, several broadcasting companies and airline companies within Australia.”

— Cathy Freeman

42. “I definitely do things on my terms, it may not seem that way but I actually do.”

— Cathy Freeman

43. “I don’t agree with everything Madonna’s done but she is fearless.”

— Cathy Freeman

44. “I’m not a marriage expert, quite clearly.”

— Cathy Freeman

45. “I do not have any official responsibilities related to the Australian Olympic Committee or the Federation of Athletic Associations since I am too busy with my private business.”

— Cathy Freeman

46. “With Alexander’s cancer, I was definitely brought to my knees for the first time because of the fear factor.”

— Cathy Freeman

47. “I’d like to see as many sports as I can because I have never had the chance to enjoy the other sports in the past.”

— Cathy Freeman

48. “Being overseas at the time it all kind of happened was perfect because I had no idea that it was going to attract so much media attention and provoke these lovely people calling in and offering up their opinions and advice.”

— Cathy Freeman

49. “I like being in the workforce; it keeps me grounded.”

— Cathy Freeman

50. “I’ll just let time happen. I don’t have to articulate what may be or what may not be. I don’t even do that to myself.”

— Cathy Freeman