Retired star sprinter Melinda Gainsford-Taylor was proud to stand next to Cathy Freeman covered in both Australian and Aboriginal flags following the 200m final at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
Following the race chef de mission Arthur Tunstall threatened to send Freeman home for the tribute to her indigenous heritage during the lap of honour after winning the race in Victoria.
“It was ridiculous,” said Gainsford-Taylor on SEN radio of the criticism against the Aboriginal flag being used.
“One of the moments now looking back on it was when Cathy won the gold medal in the 200 and she was doing a lap of honour and I was just walking.
“She goes, ‘come on Mel, come with me’.
“And I’m like, ‘oh no Cath it’s yours’. But she says, ‘no come with me’.
“Both of us were draped in the Australian and Aboriginal flags and it’s just a great picture I’ve got it at home.
“It was very memorable for that, it was great to be a part of that.”
Gainsford-Taylor ran at three Olympic Games, making the final in the 200m in Sydney that was easily won by Marion Jones who has since been stripped of her titles after admitting to cheating.
After leaving track and field in 2002 as the 100 and 200-metre national record holder she still holds the fastest time for Australia in the longer event with a 22.23 sec performance in Stuttgart from 1997.
“I even think now that coming into Barcelona (Indoor World Champs) and then being at the Olympics, it wasn’t until after that I thought, I’m pretty good at this, I can do this,” she said.
“So it took a long time to set that realisation, which is quite good because if you think you’re brilliant before you are, not that I was brilliant, or if you think you’re better than average before you are (it can make it harder to get there).
“That got me to be an Olympian and then I thought wow I love this, now I want to knuckle down and make it part of my life.”
Her success at the elite level had a lot to do with her strong rivalry with Freeman, who forced her to train harder and continually set higher standards.
“Cathy Freeman and I had a great rivalry but it was probably more from Barcelona onwards that we did the same events,” explained Gainsford-Taylor.
“I say it to my athletes that there was always people throughout my career that I’d say gave me grief from an athletic point of view, which always challenged me.
“So I didn’t always win, so that’s what pushed me… then the best competitor was having Cathy there, you know I really believe having that competition brought the best out of me.
“I was very lucky to have that.”