Stitching blunder helps identify missing Cathy Freeman bodysuit

Officials have confirmed the bodysuit anonymously handed into the MCG sports museum bears the same sewing mistake that marked the lost suit Cathy Freeman wore at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The Olympic rings on the left shoulder of Freeman's suit were stitched on upside down, with the bottom two rings on top of three.

Sydney designer Jennifer Irwin said she only received Freeman's measurements at midnight the night before the event and in "a frantic rush" she accidentally stitched the symbol on upside down.

Mike Tancred from the Australian Olympic Committee said the suit being examined by police matches that description, ABC News reports.

After Freeman lit the Olympic cauldron flame ­before 110,000 spectators at Sydney Olympic Stadium, she slipped out of the Lycra suit and left it hanging on a peg in a dressing room.

It has not been seen since and was presumed stolen or thrown away.

Even as officials come closer to identifying the suit, the question of where it has been for the past 14 years ­still remains unanswered.