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Catherine Freeman's Beijing Reflections.
Sep 12, 08:32 AM

I thoroughly enjoyed my Beijing Olympic experience mainly due to BHP Billiton, who hosted my partner and I during our 11 day visit to the Chinese capital.

To begin with, the community that is BHP is friendly and warm, and I can’t sing my praises loud enough to Maria McCarthy, and Alison Gusbeth, who made our time spent with BHP so special and memorable.

Meeting some wonderfully diverse people and their families, which included miners from central QLD and Chile, through to very senior management, was a very special insight into the values that the diversified metals and minerals company uphold.
BHP treated us to daily entertainment, food and great company that allowed me to meet inspiring BHP Olympic ambassadors which included Aussies, athletics champion Raelene Boyle and swimming sensation Eamon Sullivan.

We got to enjoy every night of the Olympic athletics programs and the highlights were undoubtedly Australia’s gold and silver medal performances from Sally McLellan in the 100 metre hurdles, and Steve Hooker in the pole vault.

Both events were amazing performances and gave us unforgettable moments, however, it was Sally’s performance that gave me the most joy because her medal was totally unexpected, let alone her making top 8.

The Jamaicans dominated the sprint events that captivated audiences and it was Usain Bolt that captured everybody’s attention with his 3 world records.

Olympics never takes place without drama, and this time it was Chinese superstar 110 metre hurdler, Liu Xiang, who provided it with his ‘walk out’ when all of China expected him to produce nothing less than a victory.

I’m so happy to have experienced this years Olympics as I thoroughly enjoyed it and enjoy more so embellishing my friends with my Beijing Olympic stories.