Freeman says only Perec can make her run faster

Australia's 400 metres Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman says she has considered visiting French athlete Marie-Jose Perec in a bid to renew their track rivalry.

"Only someone like her (Perec) can make me run faster than I've done before," the 29-year-old Sydney 2000 champion said in an interview to be aired on Australian television on Sunday.

Double world champion Freeman won silver behind Perec at Atlanta and took gold four years later at the 2000 Olympics when the Frenchwoman declined to defend her title.

Perec, a double Olympic champion in 1996, controversially walked out of the Sydney Games without competing after saying she had been threatened in her hotel.

Perec has reportedly returned to training in Guadeloupe.

"I've toyed with the idea of visiting her there," Freeman said. "I'd like to talk to her and explain what happened in Sydney."

Freeman took an 18-month break from international athletics after the Sydney Games and leaves Australia on Sunday to compete in the 4x400m relay at this month's Commonwealth Games.

The Australian did not attempt to qualify for the individual event at Manchester but is looking ahead to the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Freeman admits she is below full fitness after her training was interrupted by a thigh injury earlier this year and news that her husband Sandy Bodecker has throat cancer.

Freeman made a late decision this week to compete in the Games after encouragement from her husband, who is having treatment in Melbourne.

"You get a little bit overwhelmed with fear, you cry a lot and you're scared," Freeman said in the television interview.