Old Video Emerges Of Cathy Freeman Winning A 400m Race After Starting 54m Behind The Other Sprinters

Fans on social media have discovered an amazing video of Olympic great Cathy Freeman competing earlier in her career - and it makes for impressive viewing.

Freeman wrote her name into the history books after clinching gold at the 2000 Games in Sydney and has since become one of the most iconic figures in Australian sports.

But before she was winning gold medals on the biggest stage of them all, the Indigenous legend was blitzing opposition sprinters with huge handicaps - 54-metre handicaps to be exact!

Fans have burrowed deep into the athletics archives and found an old video of Freeman winning a 400m event at the 1996 Stawell Gift in Victoria.

In fact, it was Aussie actor Adam Zwar who discovered the footage.

Taking to social media to share it, Zwar captioned his tweet: "Is it possible that Sydney 2000 was Cathy Freeman's second biggest triumph behind the '96 Stawell Gift when she started 54m behind the field and got elbowed in the final straight?"

And he's not wrong.

Freeman was genuinely pushed by one of the other sprinters and she raced past the pack towards the finish line.

Incredibly, she's actually out of the picture for most of the vision until she finally catches up to her opponents, eventually leaving them behind with her blistering pace.

And even with a 54m handicap, Freeman still finished with a time of 50.54 seconds.

Legendary.

Topics: olympics, Race, Athletics, Australia

Max Sherry

Max Sherry is a journalist for SPORTbible Australia. After migrating Down Under from London as a teenager, he instantly fell in love with Aussie sport and its culture. From NRL to AFL, cricket to rugby — you name it, Max watches it (with a beer in hand, of course). During his time at Fox Sports, he worked in the football department covering the Premier League, A-League, Socceroos and Matildas. Born a stone's throw away from West Ham's training ground, Max is obviously a die-hard Liverpool fan.

@maxysherry