How a YouTube video of Cathy Freeman led a 14-year-old to the Commonwealth Games

When Lexie Brown first learned who Cathy Freeman was, she thought she’d been let in on a secret.

Brown was born a tick over a decade after Freeman won gold in the 400m at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. So it wasn’t until she was six and the 2016 Rio Games were on TV that Freeman was first brought up into the conversation by her nan, Wendy.

Wendy explained that Freeman was a sprinter, just like her granddaughter, and switched off the Rio Games to instead search YouTube for a replay of Freeman’s sprint.

“She probably was the first-ever athlete I watched get a medal for Australia,” Brown, now 14, said. “And her being Aboriginal was another big thing because I’m Aboriginal, on my dad’s side I’m from the Kamilaroi in Moree and on my mum’s side, I’m Gumbaynggirr from around Nambucca. Watching her achieve that much as an Aboriginal woman, it made me feel so good about being Aboriginal.”

It wouldn’t be until years later, after coming face-to-face with several statues of Freeman, that Brown figured her secret was out.

“As a little kid, you think every big thing you see is your little secret, until you realise other people know about it too,” she said. “I watched her 400m so many times … I can’t count – I’ve seen it so many times and I still watch it to this day.”

In watching that video as many times as she has, Brown has started to mimic it. On Thursday, she was named in Australia’s para athletics squad for the 2026 Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow from July. At 14, she’ll be running against women more than twice her age.

Brown, who was born without most of the lower limb of her left arm, made her international debut at the 2025 Para World Championships in New Delhi, achieving a personal best in the 100m and a bronze medal and Australian record in the universal 4x100m relay.

Although it was a great year for Brown’s career, it was also one marred by loss after the death of her nan in January. Her medal and certificate from the competition sit on display in the lounge room next to the TV that once showed the Rio Games and next to her nan’s ashes.

“The tears were also a very immediate thing,” Brown said of the moments after her international debut. “For my first international comp I was really excited for my nan to be there with me because she was my biggest supporter ever. And she probably is from heaven and I keep that in my heart.”

Brown will compete in Glasgow with a new prosthetic which helps steady her on the starting blocks and propel her body when she runs. The teenager will also head to Glasgow with some advice from her idol, Freeman, who she met at a track meet in Melbourne in March.

“As soon as I saw her, I thought ‘is that Cathy? Is that Cathy Freeman?’ ” Brown said. “I was probably kind of staring, I was like ‘this is a person I’ve watched so many times and that’s them right in front of me’.”

“Once we started talking, my nerves went. And you’d think seeing somebody as greater as her, you’d freeze up on the spot. But I was talking like it was another family member.”

“She talked to me and another athlete Briseis [Brittain] through how she felt during [the Olympics] and how nerves are normal and how beautiful the crowds are at such a big event and I loved hearing her thoughts.”

But even though she’s been told the nerves are normal, that hasn’t deterred them ahead of Glasgow.

“I’ve had multiple dreams of different things … I’ve thought I’d get off the plane just freezing or being in that call room, freezing too. All of my thoughts have been freezing,” she said.

“A medal definitely is a big stretch, but dreams can go as far as they want.”