Twenty-five years since Sydney welcomed the world, sporting heroes who captured the imagination of the country returned to the same venue that propelled them into superstardom.<\/p>\n
At Stadium Australia on Monday night, an elite group of 10 sportspeople marked the anniversary of the Sydney Olympics with a special honour: being inducted into the venue’s hall of fame.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe, who became national sporting legends at Sydney 2000. (Supplied: Venues NSW)<\/p>\n
Among them were Sydney 2000 gold medal-winning runner Cathy Freeman and swimming legend Ian Thorpe, whose medal haul inspired generations to come.<\/p>\n
All, except for Thorpe, have a special connection to the stadium that has been the home for some of the nation’s most iconic sporting moments.<\/p>\n
Golden group of Olympians, Paralympians, Wallabies and a Socceroo<\/p>\n
Sporting heroes Mark Schwarzer, Brad Fittler, Cathy Freeman, Ian Thorpe, John Aloisi, Louise Savauge, Andrew Johns and Tim Sullivan who were inducted into Stadium Australia hall of fame. (Supplied: Venues NSW)<\/p>\n
Beyond Olympians, footballers Mark Schwarzer and Mark Aloisi joined rugby league’s Brad Fittler, Andrew Johns, Wallaby John Eales along with Paralympians Tim Sullivan and Louise Sauvage as inductees.<\/p>\n
There was even room among the cohort for English rugby star Jonny Wilkinson, who broke Wallabies supporters’ hearts at Stadium Australia in 2003 with a late field goal to win the 2003 world cup.<\/p>\n
Rolling back the years in a call back to the opening ceremony, singer Nikki Webster reprised her performance of Under Southern Skies with daughter Skylah and son Malachai.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nikki Webster with her children Sydney’s Olympic stadium in Homebush. (Supplied: Venues NSW)<\/p>\n
For 400-metre champion Freeman, who recently had a stand named after her, seeing her name among the champions beside her on Monday night was “deeply personal and humbling”.<\/p>\n
“Every time I step back into this stadium, I’m reminded of that unforgettable night on September 25, 2000, when a sold-out crowd lifted me through the 400 metre final,” Ms Freeman said.<\/p>\n
“To think that 25 years have passed since the Sydney games feels surreal, yet the memories remain as vivid as ever.”<\/p>\n
Like Freeman, Sauvage had the honour of lighting the cauldron at the Paralympics before storming home for gold in the 1,500 and 5,000-metre finals.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Paralympic heroes Tim Sullivan and Louise Sauvage. (Supplied: Venues NSW)<\/p>\n
The stars stood among 400 guests at Olympic Stadium to mark the occasion last night, with music from Sydney 2000 opening ceremony conductor George Ellis and a 25-piece orchestra.<\/p>\n
“Louise, like Cathy, lit the flame at the Paralympics and then won gold under extreme pressure and with the whole nation cheering her on,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said.<\/p>\n
The group were selected by a panel of journalists, broadcasters and administrators who will add to the initial list of 10 with more inductees in 2027, 2029 and 2031.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-five years since Sydney welcomed the world, sporting heroes who captured the imagination of the country returned to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,43478,7509,34503,2733,85,99016,99015],"class_list":["post-146347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cathy-freeman","tag-hall-of-fame","tag-ian-thorpe","tag-nsw","tag-sports","tag-stadium-australia","tag-sydney-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}