By ROB GLOSTER -- Associated Press
 ALICE SPRINGS, Australia -- The indigenous people of central Australia don't need fancy billboards or 20-story portraits to remind them of Cathy Freeman. She is etched in their memories.

 Freeman is more than just an Olympic favorite to the Aborigines who live in the continent's forbidding desert. She is an inspiration and a source of pride, as well as a powerful spokeswoman for their cause.

 Andrew Lockyear still remembers the satisfaction he felt in 1994 when Freeman took a victory lap with the Aboriginal flag after winning the 400 meters at the Commonwealth Games in Canada.

 After being publicly rebuked by team officials for that display, Freeman went out and won the 200 meters -- and again paraded with the red, yellow and black flag.

 "We are a certain race of people, and that definitely made me proud," said Lockyear, who teaches the didgeridoo -- a musical instrument made from a tree trunk -- to tourists in Alice Springs.

 "That was a very important moment for us. It gave people around the world a bit of knowledge about who we are."

 Lockyear was devastated when Freeman did not carry the flag while celebrating her silver medal in the 400 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and hopes she'll be able to parade with it in triumph at the Sydney Games.

 Freeman realizes the flag is a potent symbol to indigenous people.

 "I know that when Aboriginal people look at that flag, they all feel good about themselves," Freeman said. "If I can help Aboriginals feel good about themselves, I'll do whatever it takes."

 Trevor Adamson, who lives in the bush about six hours south of Alice Springs, said his main focus at the Olympics will be on Freeman.

 "We're proud of her. She is our favorite runner," he said. "It shows not only what an Australian can do, but also what an Aborigine can do."

 Freeman, 27, will be an overwhelming favorite at Sydney in the 400, a distance over which she has not lost in three years and at which she is the two-time defending world champion. She also may run the 200, and is expected to anchor Australia's 1,600-meter relay team.

 Though Freeman has trained in the United States and lived in London during the runup to the Olympics, saying the pressure at home would be too great, it's almost impossible to go anywhere in Sydney without her.

 Billboards of Freeman are everywhere. A huge image of Freeman covers one side of an office building in downtown Sydney.

 Perhaps no athlete will be under more pressure in Sydney. She is the host nation's only real hope for a gold medal in track and field, and is trying to becoming the first Aborigine to win an individual Olympic event.

 "We've got no reason to cheer for anyone else. Cathy Freeman is our only voice in the world," said Lyall Munro, who will lead protest marches by Aborigines in Sydney. "(The 1994 flag-waving celebration) was the best thing that's ever happened to indigenous people and the struggle. Cathy's the only breath of fresh air we've had in years."

 Freeman's outspokenness on Aboriginal issues has made her even more of a hero to indigenous people.

 In July, she accused Australian leaders of insensitivity for refusing to apologize for government policies that forced the removal of about 100,000 Aboriginal children from their homes from 1910 until the 1970s.

 "I was so angry because they were denying they had done anything wrong, denying that a whole generation was stolen," Freeman said.

 "The fact is, parts of people's lives were taken away, they were stolen. I'll never know who my grandfather was, I didn't know who my great-grandmother was, and that can never be replaced."

 Australia's original inhabitants, Aborigines now are a troubled minority of 386,000 mostly impoverished people. They are beset by substance abuse, poor health, little education and crime.

 Not all Aborigines will be cheering for Freeman at the Olympics. Some are bitter that she married a white American, Nike executive Sandy Bodecker.

 "She says she's running for her country and she's running for her people. Which is it?" asked an Aboriginal woman in Sydney, who gave her name only as Michelle. "She's got to make up her mind. Is she running for the white fellow or the black fellow?"

 And Freeman was criticized a few months ago by some indigenous groups for taking part in a Nike TV commercial that they claimed exploited the reconciliation process between Aborigines and whites.

 "Run not, participate not in any sport, Cathy Freeman, we ask you not to run. Stand and mourn with us," said the Nyungah Circle of Elders from Western Australia.

 If Freeman takes a victory lap in Sydney with the Aboriginal flag, she'll have the official blessing of the Australian Olympic Committee -- which has said it will not punish athletes who celebrate with that flag.

 Aboriginal leaders hope a win by Freeman would help focus global attention on the plight of indigenous people in Australia. Isabell Coe, who is organizing a tent city in a Sydney park to publicize Aboriginal issues, said Freeman is carrying huge burdens on her shoulders.

 "We understand she's under a lot of duress," Coe said. "No pressure has ever been put on an athlete like that in this country, and it's because she's an Aboriginal woman and she makes it clear who she is."