This article examines the ways in which Australian mainstream print media represented indigenous athletes in the period of the 27th Olympiad, including at Sydney 2000. Australian mainstream media has held an apparent fascination with promoting indigenous athletes as the face of the Olympic Games and national unity and as one of the principal means by which the Games were promoted to a national and international audience. The article specifically attempts to unravel the complexities of the developing media discourse surrounding two key indigenous athletes, Nova Peris-Kneebone and Cathy Freeman, principally concentrating on issues of race and racial representation, and the depiction of indigenous running. Although there were some significant developments, issues of indigenous identity continued to be presented within, and confined by, the discourse of national unity.