- NATIONAL


Let's move on: Freeman for Beijing

By Jacquelin Magnay

Cathy Freeman has thrown her weight behind Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympics.

Australia's 400-metre champion, who lit the torch at Homebush Bay, joins the
United States tennis star Michael Chang in supporting the Chinese.

Freeman said her great great grandfather came from China, and it was time to
move on from the human rights issues.

She finds herself at odds with swimming champion Ian Thorpe, who supports Paris.

Thorpe, a French-language student, joins the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci in
backing the Paris bid.

Getting the biggest world names on side is almost as important as wooing the
International Olympic Committee members for the bid teams contesting the vote on
Friday week.

Highly paid teams of public relations consultants have been scouring the world
trying to get the public support of top athletes to exert influence and boost
the credibility of their bid.

Toronto, considered the main threat to favourite Beijing, has settled for
homegrown stars such as the 100m Atlanta gold medallist Donovan Bailey and the
cycling road racer Steve Bauer to support its cause.

Beijing says it has the backing of World Olympians Association members like 100m
champion Leroy Burrell, Barcelona Olympic gymnast gold medallist Henrietta Onodi
and the 1968 high jump champion Dick Fosbury because it has offered a palace for
all former Olympians to meet if the Games are in China.

In a move to try and attract support from fellow Asian countries, the star
Swedish table tennis player Jan-Ove Waldner visited Beijing in June to promote
its Olympic bid. But Paris has hit back with a star-studded list of its own.

Its supporters include three-time Sydney gold medallist Dutch swimmer Inge de
Bruin, German long jumper and double world champion Heike Drechsler, Russian
hammer thrower and two-time Olympic champion Yuriy Sedykh, tennis greats John
McEnroe and Romanian Ilie Nastase, Brazilian showjumpers Nelson and Rodrigo
Pessoa and Kiwi sailor Sir Peter Blake. Only yesterday the Parisians extended
the list to include Ethiopian track star Haile Gebrselassie, Russian triple gold
medal winning wrestler Alexander Karelin and four- time Olympic champion
Hungarian swimmer Krisztina Egerszegi.

Japanese ski-jump champion Kazuyoshi Funaki has also supported Paris ahead of
his own country's Osaka bid.

"This international support is symbolic of the backing the Paris bid is
receiving from great athletes the world over," Paris bid officials say.

"In the eyes of the athletes, the Paris Games would be synonymous with liberty,
fraternity and peace, the universal values found in the Olympic charter."

The other city vying for 2008 is Istanbul. Perhaps as a measure of its and
Osaka's chances, both have had little athlete support.





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