Dani Stevens

Dani Stevens
Dani Stevens in Doha 2015
Full name	Daniele Stevens
nation	Australia
birthday	26th May 1988 (age 32)
place of birth	Fairfield , Australia
size	182 cm
Weight	82 kg
Career
discipline	Discus throw
Best performance	69.64 m
society	Westfields Athletics Club
Trainer	Denis Knowles
status	active
Medal table
World championships 1 × 1 × 0 × Commonwealth Games 2 × 0 × 1 × Summer Universiade 1 × 1 × 0 × U20 world championships 1 × 0 × 0 × U18 world championships 1 × 0 × 1 ×
World championships gold Berlin 2009 65.44 m silver London 2017 69.64 m  Commonwealth Games bronze Melbourne 2006 59.44 m gold Glasgow 2014 64.88 m gold Gold Coast 2018 68.26 m  Universiade silver Bangkok 2007 60.47 m gold Belgrade 2009 62.48 m  Junior World Championships gold Beijing 2006 60.63 m  Youth World Championships gold Marrakech 2005 54.09 m bronze Marrakech 2005 15.53 m
last change: May 15, 2019

Daniele "Dani" Stevens (* 26. May 1988 in Fairfield as Daniele Samuel ) is an Australian discus thrower who occasionally also in the shot put was launched.

Athletic career

She gained her first international experience at the 2003 World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke , where she was eliminated from qualification in the shot put with a distance of 11.59 m. The following year she won the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo, home with 15.50 m in the shot put and with 49.92 m in the discus throw. In 2005 she won the gold medal with the discus at the youth world championships in Marrakech with 54.09 m and bronze in the shot put with 15.53 m. In 2006 she took part in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne for the first time and won the bronze medal there with 59.44 m behind the South African Elizna Naudé and Seema Punia from India. In addition, she took twelfth place in the shot put with a width of 14.91 m. Then she won with 60.63 m at the Junior World Championships in Beijing and was seventh with the ball with 15.71 m. Towards the end of the season she reached sixth place in the discus throw at the Athletics World Cup in Athens with 59.68 m. The following year she won the silver medal behind the Cuban Yarelys Barrios at the Summer Universiade in Bangkok with 60.47 m . She also took part in the World Championships in Osaka , where she was eliminated from the qualification with a width of 60.44 m.

In 2008 Samuel took part in the Olympic Games in Beijing for her home country for the first time and finished eighth there with 60.15 m in the final after the Cuban Barrios was subsequently disqualified for doping. The following year she won the Student World Games in Belgrade with 62.48 m and again took part in the World Championships in Berlin , where she surprisingly won with a new personal best of 65.44 m. Two years later she reached tenth place at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, with a width of 59.14 m. In 2012 she again took to the Olympic Games in London in part and finished there with 60.40 meters in the finals originally the twelfth and so last place in the final. However, afterwards she was moved up one place because of the disqualification of the Russian Darja Pishchalnikova. In 2013 she was tenth at the World Championships in Moscow with a throw of 62.42 m. The following year she took part in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow for the second time and won there with a width of 64.88 m.

In 2015 she reached the final of the World Championships in Beijing , where she finished sixth with 63.14 m. The following year she took part again in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and just barely missed a medal there with 64.90 m in the final as fourth. In 2017 she improved the Oceania record of her compatriot Daniela Costian to 69.64 m in the final at the World Championships in London and thus won the silver medal behind the Croatian Sandra Perković . At her third Commonwealth Games in the native Gold Coast , she successfully defended her title and set a new championship record with 68.26 m.

In the shot put, Stevens was Australian champion from 2005 to 2007 and 2009 and 2012. With the discus, she secured the titles in the years from 2005 to 2012 and from 2014 to 2018.

Personal

She was born as the second oldest of four children to the couple Tracy and Mark Samuels in the metropolis of Sydney and grew up in the Greystanes district . There she began to train athletics at the age of seven at Graystane's little athletic club , and her talents in basketball were promoted . In the seventh year of school, she moved to the renowned Westfields Sports High School to further expand her performance in basketball, but decided under her coach Denis Knowles to specialize in discus throwing. At the age of 15, she revised this decision again at short notice when she again focused exclusively on the ball sport, but then switched back to the discus ring for good. Her sister Jamie Samuels played basketball in the Australian league for a long time.

Stevens graduated from the University of Western Sydney with an art degree .

Personal best

• Shot put: 17.05 m, March 2, 2014 in Sydney
• Discus throw: 69.64 m, 13 August 2017 in London ( Oceania record )

Web links

Commons : Dani Stevens  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Dani Stevens in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Dani Stevens in the database of Athletics Australia (English)
• Dani Stevens in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Steve Landells: First impressions - Dani Samuels ( English ) IAAF. March 21, 2016. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
• Steve Landells: That moment when ... Stevens won her first senior medal ( English ) IAAF. October 21, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2019.