 Her personal best of 48.63 currently ranks her as the eighth-fastest woman of all time, set while finishing second to Marie-José Pérec's number-three time at the 1996 Olympics.She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame.Freeman was the first Australian Indigenous person to become a Commonwealth Games gold medallist at age 16 in 1990.