With it 20 years since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, there's plenty of people reflecting on Cathy Freeman's 400-metre gold medal performance.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But something fans may not have heard about is her time at Ringwood Athletic Club in Melbourne.
The south-west has been fortunate to have had internationally-accredited coach Phil Molesworth mentoring athletes in recent months.
READ MORE:
He is a coach and on the committee at Athletics South West Turbines track and field club.
Molesworth was women's team manager at Ringwood when Freeman was team captain. "After the Commonwealth Games (1990) she moved from Queensland to Victoria," he said.
"When she came to Victoria I managed to be lucky enough to recruit her to the Ringwood club; because of her position I immediately made her captain of the team the next year.
"As captain of the team, I would call in on her once a week at Olympic Park because she didn't train at Ringwood she trained at Olympic Park in Melbourne."
You can listen to Molesworth speak on The Main Break podcast here:
Molesworth, usually on Tuesdays, would talk with Freeman as well as her coach Peter Fortune and manager Nic Bideau.
"We would discuss the (Ringwood) team and what we were doing on the Thursday and so on," he said.
Molesworth would also see on her competition days.
He said she didn't run every week but when she did she would anchor the 4x400m relay team.
"She ran some other events to qualify for finals and then would compete for us in finals," he said.
Sometimes he'd call in to her place for a coffee and chat.
"We chatted about what was going on and what we were doing and how the team was going, she had a real interest in it and followed the team closely," he said.
"She took pride in being the captain and being the person that was up front when someone wanted to talk about the team.
"She was captaining the team when we won two premierships in state league. We lost one by one point and then won the next two.
"And Cathy was there right through that period, the team dominated Athletics in Victoria."
Molesworth said Freeman wasn't the only big name on the team.
Olympic sprinter Lauren Hewitt and Olympic high-jumper Andrea Hughes were also part of the "nucleus of some top athletes" who competed for the club.
"And Cathy knew them all," Molesworth added.
The experienced coach, currently living in Rainbow in the state's north-west, intends to move to Warrnambool in the near future.
He has been impressed by south-west athletes.
"You've got amazing talent there," he said.
"In fact I've written a note, 'Warrnambool has a lot of talent, and like Ballarat has been in the past, could become a power in distance running'. I honestly believe that, the talent is in the district."
Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.