SYDNEY (AP) — Cathy Freeman thrilled Australians when she won the women’s 400 meters gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, wearing a skin-tight, hooded running suit. She then excited controversy when she took a victory lap carrying the Australian flag and a flag representing Australia’s First Nations peoples.

On Monday, Freeman was awarded Australia’s highest civil honor in the annual honors list commemorating the Australia Day national holiday. The honor, she said, means that at 53 its time to start getting more serious.

Freeman has been made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in recognition of her services to athletics, social impact across Australia and as a role model to youth. She was one of 10 recipients of the honor, including five women.

As well as being one of Australia’s foremost female athletes, Freeman has been a longtime campaigner on issues affecting Australia’s Indigenous people.

She was the first Indigenous Australian to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal when, aged 16 in 1990, she was a member of Australia’s winning 4 x 100m relay team. She went on to win four Commonwealth golds and won world championships in the 400 in 1997 and 1999.

In 2007 she founded the Cathy Freeman Foundation, later renamed the Community Spirit Foundation, which supports educational opportunities for Indigenous children in remote communities.

“I set out to be the best athlete that I could be for myself and then all of a sudden, this whole world unfolded right before my very eyes, and it just continues to expand, and it continues to be a wild ride, let me tell ya!” Freeman told the Sydney Morning Herald Monday.

She said the honor means she will have to “get a bit more serious with the things I’m going to pursue now.

“It’s so grown up, it’s so formal, it’s so serious. The responsibility that comes with it … this is a serious honor. So, geez, I’ve got to be serious. I’m 53, so I think I should be conducting myself with a little bit more seriousness, anyway.”

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