The sprite in a skinsuit runs into legend while Merry dedicates her bronze to coach Christie

Special report: the Sydney Olympics

Guardian

The noise and the sparkle lasted 49.11sec, which was how long it took Cathy Freeman to run her way to a gold medal and into Australian legend, ahead of Lorraine Graham of Jamaica and Merry of Britain in the silver and bronze medal positions. And Freeman did it while carrying what was perhaps a greater historical burden than any athlete since Jesse Owens, propelled by the cheers of a crowd whose size was an all-time record for an Olympic stadium event.

By accepting a role which cast her as the symbol of the Aboriginal people's desire for retrospective and present justice, the 27-year-old Freeman might have seemed to be adding lead weights to her running shoes. But so deep is her integrity and so profound her involvement in an issue which shaped her own family's story that she was able to confront a degree of expectation which would surely have crushed a lesser person.

There is nothing glib or rhetorical about Freeman's way of expressing her beliefs. After the race she gently sidestepped an invitation to say that she had reached her version of Aboriginal "dreamtime", but she was not about to start avoiding the implications of her win.

"My family are a constant reminder of my Aboriginal heritage," she said, "and it gave me a big thrill to make them so happy." After receiving her gold medal, she ran over to the stands to present her bouquet to her mother.

Australia will have to wait and see whether or not its consciousness is really changed by her victory and by her equally symbolic performance in lighting the Olympic flame 10 days ago. The tone of some of the letters in the local papers suggests that enlightenment is not universal, and that genuine "reconciliation" is still some way off. "What's happened tonight probably won't make much difference to people's attitudes, or to the politicians," Freeman said yesterday. "All I know is that I made a lot of people happy. And I'm happy."

On the track, the purity of her performance was its own reward. Wearing a one-piece skinsuit in the pale green, yellow and white of Australia, she looked like a beautiful sprite. The hood framed her expressive face, emphasising the deep breath and the grimace of determination before she lowered herself into the starting blocks.

Following the instruction of her coach, Peter Fortune, she took the first half of the race relatively easily and after 300 metres she was lying a mere third, 0.14sec down on Graham and 0.08sec on Merry. Then she turned it on, running the last 100 metres in an astonishing 12.97sec to finish four metres ahead of Graham, who crossed the line another metre in front of the impressive Merry.

Having achieved her ambition, Freeman did not leap in the air or otherwise salute her own achievement in the way of most contemporary athletes. She pulled down the zip of her suit, pulled back the hood and simply sat down on the track. Blank-faced, she looked as though she had been drained of all sensation. But later, when she had regathered her faculties, she said that the dominant feeling had been one of relief. "I was totally overwhelmed because I could feel the crowd all around me, all their emotions, all that happiness and joy. I just had to sit down."

She was asked if things could get any better than this. "I don't think so," she said. "I have a fairly creative imagination, but I can't think of anything better right now."

The job of lighting the flame at the conclusion of the spectacular opening ceremony had given her a few worries, not all of them connected with the faulty mechanism of the circle of fire in which she stood, watched by a worldwide audience of billions.

"I decided I'd make a big effort to relax, not get too emotional or buy into the hype, and to keep my life simple and stick to my priorities. Running comes more naturally to me than the creative stuff."

Despite the dramatic withdrawal of Marie-José Pérec, the Olympic champion in Atlanta, the quality of the race was remarkable. Freeman produced her season's best time, while Graham and Merry both ran personal bests, in 49.58sec and 49.72sec respectively, as did Donna Fraser, the other British woman in the race, who clocked 49.79sec. Merry and Fraser were both going below 50sec for the first time, and at the ages of 26 and 27 respectively they can look forward to further improvement.

"Me and Donna go back a long way," the exhilarated Merry said. "If it had been the other way round, with Donna on the rostrum and me fourth, I'd still be pleased. I've known Cathy the same length of time, and there's nobody in athletics I respect more. I had no illusions. Cathy on form with 110,000 people behind her was a pretty hard mountain to shift.

"I like Cathy as a person and when we crossed the line I just shook her hand and said, 'You're awesome'. She deserves everything she's got. We've all had our hard times this year, and she's had her fair share. I'm 110% pleased for her. She's a great girl."

Merry has been bothered by sinus trouble over the past couple of years, and will need a second operation soon. "But you can't let something like that stop you," she said. "I'm ecstatic. The first part of my season I believed I could get on the rostrum in Sydney. In June I didn't know if I'd even be here. So I'm delighted with the medal, and with my time. I've been trying to break 50 seconds all year."

She had spent the morning with her coach, Linford Christie, just hanging out, playing table tennis and chatting. "We didn't talk about the race. All he said was, 'I'm not going to tell you how to run because you know how you're going to run.' But when I walked out on to the track I was so nervous. All I could hear was 'Go, Cathy! Go, Cathy!' Then I heard this big voice shouting 'C'mon, Christmas! C'mon, Christmas!' That made me laugh.

"Only Linford calls me Christmas. So I knew where he was sitting and as soon as I'd finished the race I ran over to him and said 'This one was for you.' Everything was for Linford this trip. I'm so glad I got a medal for him. He wanted to get a woman on the rostrum at an Olympics and I'm just glad it was me."

Could she summarise his contribution to her performance?