At 16 years of age, Catherine won gold at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games as part of the 4x100m relay team, and at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics she became the first Aboriginal track and field athlete to represent Australia at an Olympic Games. In 1994 she won double gold at the Victoria Commonwealth Games in the 200m (22.25 secs) and 400m (50.38).

In Melbourne 1996, she became the first Australian woman to run under 50 seconds for the 400m. Then at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, she became the sixth fastest woman ever over 400m, running a Commonwealth record and winning silver (48.63) behind Marie-Jose Perec in arguably the greatest one lap race of all time. After Atlanta, Freeman won back to back World Championships in the 400m in 1997 (49.77) and 1999 (49.67) then won the 200m (22.78) and 400m (50.00) national titles in February 2000 at Stadium Australia.

Read more at the Sports Australia Hall of Fame.