BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — During a latest group journey to Melbourne, Tony Gustavsson, head coach of Australia’s nationwide girls’s soccer group, known as a gathering. Instead of main the Matildas by a tactical dialogue, he informed the gamers he had totally different plans for the night.

“They played about a three-minute highlight reel on YouTube of the moment of Cathy Freeman’s race,” Matildas defender Aivi Luik recounted Tuesday in Brisbane, the place the Matildas are finalizing preparations for the Women’s World Cup. “And by the top of it, there was lots of emotion going round within the room.

“And when they turned the lights on, we turned around, and there she was.”

If any Australian is aware of easy methods to deal with stress within the sports area, it’s Freeman. In 2000, she was closely favored to win the 400 meters within the Sydney Olympics. She lit the cauldron on the opening ceremony within the days main as much as a very powerful race of her life.

With the nation’s sports-loving public watching in expectation, Freeman made historical past as the primary Indigenous individual from Australia to win a person Olympic gold medal. After the race, Freeman circled the monitor as soon as extra, carrying each the Aboriginal and Australian flags.

She delivered below stress in entrance of her house crowd, and cemented her standing as Australia’s iconic Olympian.

The Matildas should take care of huge expectations over the following month, as Australia and New Zealand co-host the Women’s World Cup.

Gustavsson, a Swede who was an assistant coach with the U.S. girls’s nationwide group earlier than taking up as head coach of the Matildas in 2020, at one level took notice that greater than half of his gamers recognized Freeman because the athlete who most evokes them.

Luik is a 38-year-old defender from Perth with 43 worldwide caps for Australia. She was 15 when Freeman gained gold in Sydney. Star striker Sam Kerr was 7 when she watched that race on TV, and recollects it as considered one of her greatest inspirations in sport.

“A lot of girls were very emotional,” Luik mentioned of assembly Freeman. “She spoke back to us just like she was a friend, and we got a lot of good insight from that.”

Freeman isn’t identified for making many public speeches, however she spoke to the group about dealing with the stress of performing in a significant occasion in entrance of large house crowds.

The Matildas tackle Ireland in a World Cup opening match Thursday at Stadium Australia in Sydney Olympic Park - the identical stadium the place Freeman ignited the flame and gained her race.

A crowd of 82,500 is predicted, which might set the Australian attendance document for a girls’s soccer match. The Matildas discovered consolation in Freeman’s phrases.

“We came away from that feeling a little bit of a weight off our shoulders and just completely inspired,” Luik mentioned.

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Luke Winstel is a pupil on the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

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