TRACK HERO IS QUEEN FOR DAY.

Byline: DOUG KRIKORIAN

SYDNEY, Australia - The Australians almost voted out the Queen of England as their figurative head of state in a referendum last November, and the House of Windsor is fortunate they're not holding an election today.

No way Queen Elizabeth would survive it.

There is only one queen who now reigns over this country.

Queen Cathy.

Oh yes, Cathy Freeman vaulted into athletic royalty and into the hearts of an entire nation Monday night by winning the women's 400 meters at the Olympic Stadium before 110,000 patrons who broke the sound barrier when she zipped past the finish line.

If she had lost, it would have been the greatest tragedy to strike this country since Gallipoli, for never has an athlete in its history been showered with more adulation - and unparalleled media coverage - than this proud 27-year-old Aborigine of enduring resolve and resilience.

But Cathy Freeman didn't lose. She streaked around the track in her resplendent, gold-and-green, top-to-toe body suit, blowing past Jamaica's Lorraine Graham and Great Britain's Katharine Merry down the stretch to win pulling away at 49.1.

And, after she had done what everyone here expected her to do - and everyone wanted her to do - she collapsed to the ground, head bowed, catching her breath, as her rivals came over to offer congratulations and the huge crowd roared with deafening passion.

``I was totally overwhelmed at that moment,'' she would say later. ``I was feeling the crowd all over me. I could feel everyone's emotion. I could feel it in every chord in my body.''

There is no one in Australia at the moment even close in popularity to Cathy Freeman, not Prime Minster John Howard, not Mel Gibson, not Paul Hogan, not Elle McPherson, not Kate Blanchette, not even Ian Thorpe or Dawn Fraser.

It's not just Cathy Freeman's running skills that have inspired such veneration that Monday's Australian newspapers were overflowing with lengthy Freeman features. The Sydney Morning Telegraph even printed ``The Race Of Our Lives'' as a main headline above one of the stories.

Clearly, Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman - chosen to light the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremonies - has become the consciousness for a large segment of this country's population.

She was running Monday night not only for Australia's sporting glory but also for Aboriginal Australia, for a reconciled Australia, for a hoped-for apology from the reluctant PM for past injustices perpetuated by her people's government.

She took her victory lap with the Australian and Aboriginal flags draped around her shoulders, a not-so-subtle symbol of her activism in regard to her heritage.

``I would hope this victory would make a difference in people's attitudes toward the Aborigines,'' she said during her post-race press session. ``I would hope it also would change the attitude of some of the politicians.''

But Cathy Freeman did not use her greatest triumph as a political forum.

She did not discuss the Aborigines' ``stolen generation,'' a term used here in reference to those thousands of children who were kidnapped from their parents and relocated in special camps by the Australian government for a good portion of the 20th century. Her maternal grandmother was one of them.

Nor did she bring up other Aborigine grievances.

She was in ecstasy on this brightest of nights for herself and Australian athletics - she is the first Aussie to win a gold in track since Debbie Flintoff-King won the 400-meter hurdles at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 - and a soft smile never left her face as she spoke in a voice that was hoarse.

Someone wanted to know what moved her more, igniting the Olympic flame or covering herself with gold.

``I'd have to say the Olympic gold medal means more to me personally,'' she said. ``Getting to light the cauldron was a tremendous honor, but that was more about the whole Olympic movement. This was about me finally reaching my dreams.''

And reaching deep into the souls of her adoring countrymen.