It's a thought almost too hard to fathom.

That Cathy Freeman got her athletics career somewhat wrong.

That the 2000 Olympic gold medallist did not reach her physical peak in just the 400 metres.

Yet nearly 24 years since the iconic Australian's time under the spotlight at the height of the Sydney Olympic Games, Freeman has found out that science suggests her best performances would likely have been in the 800-metre race.

The 51-year-old has revealed publicly that a DNA test informed Freeman of a pre-disposed leg-up to run a comparatively better time in the 800m.

"After retirement I realise now that I had a really big appetite for the 800m, so stepping to a two-lap event up from a one-lap event," Freeman told a Beyond Greatness Speaker Series episode in Perth this week.

"I would have loved, loved, loved to have given the 800m a real crack now."

The 51-year-old had rarely attempted to chase success beyond the 400m nor competitively train and race for the 800m, despite harbouring an interest over time.

While most star 400m dashers drop distances down to the 200m, there are documented cases of one-lap runners also taking part in the 800m, considered the shortest run middle-distance event.

But only Cuban runner Alberto Juantorena in 1976 has won both the 400m and 800m races across the history of the Olympics, with suggestions that if Freeman had done so it would have been at the expense of the 400m race.

"I kind of have regrets I would say a little bit and I have never come out and said that publicly at all before, but I can own it now because it's in my DNA results," she said.

Freeman could blame a lack of the use of a more scientific approach to her running methods through the 1990s to not adding or switching around her pet event.

Between clasping a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics against French rival Marie-José Pérec and preparing for the next four years to challenge that reigning gold medallist in Sydney, focusing on a longer race distance was the last thing on Freeman's mind.

The Birri Gubba and Kuku Yalanji woman also admitted at a guest appearance in Perth days out from the opening of the Paris Olympic Games, that she could not understand what all the fuss was about and the fascination around Australia on her early standout performances as a source of national pride.

"I'm a bush kid, barefoot, wood and dirt girl, but certainly all these years later, in my infinite wisdom, I certainly can respect the connection and the emotion that gets all flurried up in people's hearts and minds," she said.

"Athletes like myself, kind of thrive on the Olympic environment to be truthful – we love it.

"Even though the pressure on me... was full on.

"And for me, it was a 17-year lead-in when you factor all the training and preparing, not just one lap of the track."

Freeman said she is looking forward to another Olympic Games – the sixth Olympiad since her retirement after appearing in Sydney.

When asked what advice she would offer to the next generation of rising track stars aspiring to follow in her footsteps, Freeman said: "Never forget who you are".