They work out before playing

Usage examples of athletes.

The whole family were with her on holidays that trip, so they camped in a caravan park near the AIS while Cathy met Australian athletes preparing for the Los Angeles Olympics, a few weeks off.

Newspapers listed the names of 15 athletes who were likely to be cut and Freeman, 16, was included in most of them.

The reason given to the other three girls was fear of injury to them before the big relay, but, as Monique Dunstan says, for the athletes the contrary was true.

Sambell thought Freeman was keen on stats when, in truth, Cathy was checking out the computer messages, some romantic, which athletes could send one another.

Yet the relay girls were the athletes in demand, and Cathy's Aboriginality in train a fame which has steamed ahead ever since.

A few days later, at the school track where usually 15 athletes trained, Cathy began her warm-up and, like Pied Piper, about 50 other students suddenly joined in behind her.

At Plovdiv Cathy, 17, came fifth in the 200m final, even though the titles are open to athletes up to the age of 20.

The worlds are held every second year to give track and field athletes competition between Olympics.

She had gone from relay gold medallist to relay reject, and felt she might be an object of ridicule in the eyes of other athletes inside Olympic Park.

Norman was then the biggest meet promoter in Europe and what he said now was in full view of the other athletes.

Other athletes may have organised similar back-ups but few observers doubted Freeman's advantage with her team.

Most athletes would never be so ambitious, would not risk setting themselves up for certain disappointment.

She loved the village but not their unit's position, right over an athletes' bus station.

The following season the rules were changed so that if athletes recorded world top 10 or 20 performances compared with the previous year's rankings, they received extra bonus points.

He trained hard and discovered that, at anything over 1500m, where black athletes tail off, Americans don't rate.