Dave Steen (shot putter)
Medal record | ||
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Men's athletics
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Representing ![]() | ||
Commonwealth Games | ||
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1962 Perth | Shot put |
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1966 Kingston | Shot put |
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1970 Edinburgh | Shot put |
Pan American Games | ||
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1967 Winnipeg | Shot put |
David Lorne Steen (born 2 January 1942)
He was a nine-time national champion in throwing events at the Canadian Track and Field Championships. Also among his honours were a shot put bronze at the 1967 Pan American Games and two bronze medals in the shot and discus at the 1969 Pacific Conference Games. He was coached by Bill Bowerman within the Oregon Ducks track and field program and was part of the winning team for the 1962 American collegiate NCAA title.
After retiring from sport, he became a writer. He was a journalist at the Toronto Star from 1968 to 1994, wrote several non-fiction books on exercise, and published his first novel A Bicycle Story in 2022.
Career
Early life
A native of
He had his first achievements in the shot put while at Douglas Road Elementary School in Burnaby, winning the school title at age eleven.
International career
Steen won his first national title as a teenager in 1960, winning the hammer throw, which was not very developed at a national level at that point. His first national title in the shot put came at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in 1962. His winning mark of 17.20 m (56 ft 5 in) was by far the best ever performance in the competition's history at that point.[7] This earned him his first major international call-up for the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, held in Perth, Western Australia. There he had a throw of 17.90 m (58 ft 8+1⁄2 in), which would have won all previous titles but on this occasion was a close third behind Martyn Lucking and Mike Lindsay.[8]
In the 1963
Steen returned to form in 1965 with a second career title at the Canadian Championships and a season's best of 18.52 m (60 ft 9 in). He also won his first national title in the discus throw, doing so with 51.62 m (169 ft 4+1⁄4 in). The following year he set a new shot put personal best of 19.12 m (62 ft 8+3⁄4 in) to win the Canadian title in a championship record. This mark ranked him eleventh in the world that season and went unbettered nationally until Bruce Pirnie's 1972 win.[1][7] The 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica saw Steen became Canada's first ever shot put gold medallist at the competition. His winning throw of 18.79 m (61 ft 7+3⁄4 in) was a large improvement on the Commonwealth Games record set by Lucking four years earlier.[8] In addition to the shot put, he competed in the discus event and placed fourth.[10]
He took a shot put and discus double at the 1967 national championships and his best throw that year was 18.55 m (60 ft 10+1⁄4 in).[1][7] He came close to that seasonal peak at the 1967 Pan American Games, which were held on home turf in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was the bronze medallist behind two Americans who were world leaders at that point: Randy Matson, who was Olympic champion the year after, and Neal Steinhauer, the top ranked putter in 1969. Steen's 1967 medal was Canada's first in the Pan American men's shot put (his compatriot Nancy McCredie won the women shot that year).[11]
Steen was Canadian champion in the shot put in both 1968 and 1969, solidifying an unbeaten run from 1965. The latter title was his last at national level.[7] He was selected for the Canadian team for the inaugural 1969 Pacific Conference Games and a performance of 18.54 m (60 ft 9+3⁄4 in) in the shot put and 54.94 m (180 ft 2+3⁄4 in) in the discus brought him two bronze medals. His teammate George Puce was the discus winner at the event in Tokyo.[12]
He returned to defend his shot put title at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games. The 28-year-old successfully topped the podium again, winning the gold medal with a new games record (and lifetime best) of 19.21 m (63 ft 1⁄4 in). He was the first man to defend that title since Harry Hart did so in 1934.[8] He again competed in the discus throw as well, and ranked tenth with a mark of 50.64 m (166 ft 1+1⁄2 in).[13] This was the last major competition of his career. He was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1977.[14]
Writing and coaching
After his retirement from competition he began coaching young athletes in the 1970s. This included novelist Lawrence Hill—a keen teenage runner—whom Steen advised to focus on writing after a poor outcome of a fitness test. His athletes also included three Olympians - John Craig, Paul Craig, and Brian Maxwell. Maxwell went on to be the co-inventor of Power Bars.[15]
He was a writer and editor for the
Personal life
He married Margaret Daly, also a journalist, in Chicago in late 1963,[9] though this was short-lived. Steen married for a second time in 1967 to Cassie Gairdner, a former Eastern Canadian junior champion discus thrower (introduced by Cassie’s brother and then Steen's teammate, Olympic decathlete Bill Gairdner). They had 3 children: Laura Jane, Heather and Stefan. In 1996 he moved back to British Columbia to live by the ocean, write, and take up competitive cycling.
International competitions
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
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1962 | British Empire and Commonwealth Games | Perth, Western Australia | 3rd | Shot put | 17.90 m |
1966 | British Empire and Commonwealth Games | Kingston, Jamaica | 1st | Shot put | 18.79 m GR |
4th | Discus throw | 54.24 m | |||
1967 | Pan American Games | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada | 3rd | Shot put | 18.51 m |
1969 | Pacific Conference Games | Tokyo, Japan
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3rd | Shot put | 18.54 m |
3rd | Discus throw | 54.94 m | |||
1970 | British Commonwealth Games | Edinburgh, Scotland
|
1st | Shot put | 19.21 m GR |
10th | Discus throw | 50.64 m |
National titles
- Canadian Track and Field Championships
- Shot put: 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969
- Discus throw: 1965, 1967
- Hammer throw: 1960
References
- ^ a b c d Dave Steen. Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ Andrews, Ron (1963-06-26). American Trackmen Smash Records In Canadian Meet. Jamestown Post-Journal, p.30. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ a b c d e How the Fitness Council Helps Canadian Sport. Ottawa Citizen Weekend Magazine, no.43, p.64. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ Dave Steen Archived 2015-04-07 at the Wayback Machine. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ a b c Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame 2002Archived 2003-10-02 at the Wayback Machine. Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ Maloney, Jim (2012-09-03). 1962 Track & Field Champions: The Year Oregon’s “Tigers” Roared. FishDuck. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ a b c d Canadian Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ a b c Commonwealth Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ a b Kollins, Rick (1963-10-11). Fistaminations for a Quiet Wednesday. The Varsity Toronto, vol. 83, no. 8. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ 1966 Results for Athletics - Discus Throw - Men Archived 2015-04-06 at the Wayback Machine. Commonwealth Games Federation. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ Pan American Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ Pacific Conference Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ Dave Steen Archived 2015-04-07 at the Wayback Machine. Commonwealth Games Federation. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame Members. Olympic Canada. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ a b Hill, Lawrence (2014). Blood: A Biography of the Stuff of Life, p. 72. Oneworld Publications. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ Steen, David 1942- . World Cat. Retrieved on 2015-04-03.
- ^ 1677 The rough side of cycling. The British Colombia Review (2022-12-21). Retrieved 2023-11-18.