Dani Stevens chases history at the Australian Championships

Published Sun 11 Apr 2021

11 April 2021

Dani Stevens chases history at the Australian Championships

Triple Olympian, Dani Stevens, chases discus title number 14, to make her the most successful ever athlete in a single event at the national championships this week in Sydney.

Gold Coast-based Dani Stevens will have her third competition this summer, after returning from a year where she battled a gym accident where she sustained nerve damage in her neck.

Currently Stevens and Andrew Murphy (triple jump) each have won the most national titles in a single event – 13, but Stevens has the opportunity to move past Murphy.

Stevens won her first senior title in 2005, aged just 16 years, throwing 55.78m. In 2006 she won the shot/discus double.

A win in the discus this year will also be her eighteenth title, which includes her four shot put titles. This total equal Tamsyn Manou, also on 18, and moves her to second most successful women with total medals behind Gael Mulhall.

After her return competition at the Sydney Track Classic, Stevens was brimming with excitement reflecting on the challenging year of rehabilitation in 2020.

“It’s been really hard and really frustrating, but I’m out the other-side now,” said Stevens after her first competion in 15 months.

“It feels like that time was a bad dream, but it was so worth taking the time to do it properly and recover with normal function back, then to comeback and throw just short of Olympic qualifying is pretty good when I think about it.”

Australian Open Track & Field Championships

Leading Gold Medallists:

Women -

20 Gael Mulhall

18 Tamsyn Manou

17 Pam Ryan

17 Dani Stevens

Leading Gold Medallists in a single event:

Women -