The people of the world cheered when Australian Aborigine Cathy Freeman sprinted across the finish line to win the Gold Medal in the women’s 400 meter race in the Sydney Olympics.

Her victory, echoing the tennis victories of another Aboriginal woman, Evonne Goolagong, was greeted as a triumph over racism, a blow for racial and gender equality.

Like the African-American people, Australia’s native peoples have been victims of centuries of racist genocide. Freeman’s grandmother was one of the so-called "stolen generation" of Aborigines, taken as a child from her parents and raised by a white family as part of a policy of forced assimilation.

The Sydney Olympics have showcased the victories of women and people of color from around the world. The world waits to see if Marion Jones will capture her five Golds. Michael Johnson thrilled viewers with his second consecutive Gold Medal victory in the men’s 400 meter sprint. Stacy Dragila soared over the bar at 15 feet, one inch, to win the Gold in the first ever women’s pole vault competition.

Anier Garcia of Cuba made headlines by upsetting defending U.S. champion Allen Jones in the 110 meter hurdles. And the gutsy Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia sprinted past Kenya’s Paul Tergat to capture the Gold in the grueling 10,000 meter distance race.

Heavy corporate commercialism pollutes the Olympic atmosphere. The U.S. media barely conceals its national chauvinism in favoring U.S. athletes. And they have sensationalized the issue of banned drugs. Jones should not be burdened with her husband’s failure of a drug test and Romanian gymnast, Andreea Raducan, should not have been stripped of her Gold medal because of cold medicine.

But, regardless of these distractions, these Olympic games and performances like Freeman’s, are an inspiration. They prove that ordinary men and women of all races and nationalities can achieve extraordinary victories, including the defeat of the forces of racism and reaction.