BY THE time the most anticlimactic race of the Beijing athletics program was run, some of the burden of carrying the hopes of 1.3 billion people had passed from China's Liu Xiang, the 110 metres hurdler who withdrew with injury, to Australia's Cathy Freeman, the woman who carried the dreams of 20 million people in Sydney eight years earlier.
"I don't think he wanted to win an Olympic gold medal here," she said, convinced that Liu was a blueprint, rather than a dream, a man channelled into a race he could not win, even if he crossed the line first.
Liu is a product of a system in which he was programmed to win China's first gold medal on the track at home, all to justify government investment in sport, rather than allow the sport to be a conduit to the individual's ambitions and dreams. If there were ever a moment in the life of the young Aboriginal woman when Freeman's surname really meant something, it was in the minutes after Liu's race had been won by Cuba's Dayron Robles.
"I've heard a lot of comment from local Chinese people since I've been here, and I'm proud I'm a real product of the way we raise our athletes and the way Australian society lets us choose what we do in life," she said. "I don't want to be disrespectful to the Chinese people but I will say I'm very happy I'm Australian. From the time Liu grew up in his village, he was identified as an athlete, and there was a lot of pressure from the Chinese Government for him to run."
Yet an old-fashioned enemy of China's Communist rulers - capitalism - may be more at fault.
Liu has 17 sponsors, including footwear giant Nike. A few million dollars in marketing campaigns would have evaporated had Liu withdrawn two weeks ago. After all, if you're flogging products to the world's largest market off the athletic ability of a homegrown hero, you want the cash registers humming to the starter's gun.
Australian businessmen who have lived in Beijing for years say the Chinese Government's role in Liu's withdrawal was classic Mandarin court behaviour: a public apology delivered by a high-ranking official at the stadium 24 hours later. The mea culpa would have been prepared a week before and the facts known even earlier.
Freeman's empathy with Liu began from the moment she arrived in Beijing.
Liu's non-involvement in the opening ceremony was perceived as a positive.
"At least he doesn't have to get up at midnight and go to bed at 3am," she said in reference to her involvement in a secretive rehearsal in Sydney. But when Freeman witnessed Liu's withdrawal, she was angry with him for raising the expectations of his country.
"He knew he wasn't going to race," she said, unaware the demands of capitalism and the protocol of communism had prepared a lane of hurdles he couldn't possibly clear.
"I feel so sorry for the Chinese people."
Yet, a further two days on, she had turned full circle in the mind, as she did so splendidly on the track, and was back to empathising with the athlete.
"I feel for Liu Xiang," she said.
While Liu, an athlete she may never meet, caused her biggest disappointment of the Games, another hurdler she is yet to greet produced her greatest joy.
"I have never seen her more excited than when Sally McLellan won a silver medal," said Freeman's partner, James Murch, a young, likeable Melbourne financial manager.
"She was more excited than when I asked her to marry me."
Freeman said: "I was more excited than when I won in Sydney," indicating she jumped up and down and cheered with such gusto it may have contributed to the laryngitis she suffered in Beijing. "It's the most excited I've ever been at the track."
Asked why McLellan's silver promoted so much emotion, compared with the relief of Sydney, she said: "It's different watching other athletes. You don't expect it, whereas with yourself, you know the result."
Freeman is also pleased at the efforts of a rival country.
"I'm Australian first but happy for the Poms," she said of Britain's bulging chest of medals and hopes for London 2012. "I spent so much time there. I lived and trained in London and I loved it. The Poms also supported me when there was so much controversy over me running with the Aboriginal flag at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada."
There are still some deep scars in Freeman's psyche and residual doubts about her sport. Britain's Christine Ohuruogu now takes her place beside Freeman in the list of Olympic 400m champions, having won in Beijing, despite being banned for a year in 2006 for missing three out-of-competition drug tests. If an athlete misses two tests, she'd be certain about making the third, Freeman assumes.
Freeman admits it was only after she landed in Beijing and sat down with Murch late on the first night that she was able to rationalise the pressure of the 2000 Olympics. Still, she has a growing confidence about her place in history and has established the Catherine Freeman Foundation to offer opportunities for Aboriginal youth.
While she will always be defined by her Australian-ness, her surname - and all it implies - derives from England.
"My great-great-grandfather did come from Dorset," she said, grateful for her gifts as her nation is to have her.