Anneliese's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Athletics
Event: 4x400m Relay
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Rio Olympics 400m semi-final, 4x400m final
Club: Sydney University
Year Born: 1992
State Born: ACT
About Anneliese
One of Australia’s great sprinters inspired Annelise Rubie to start her journey in athletics.
“I saw an advertisement on television for Little Athletics with Matt Shirvington and thought it looked like fun!”
She was a successful little athlete, but took a break in her early teens. She made an impressive return to the sport a few years later and while in her late teens she made the semi-finals at the World Juniors (2010) and World University Games (2011) and competed at the senior World Championships (2011).
In 2013, Anneliese joined Morgan Mitchell to lead a resurgence in women’s 400m and 4x400m running in Australia. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the Australian 4x400m team placed fourth, then in April 2015 secured an Olympic relay position at the IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas. Individually at 400m, she made the semis at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 world championships.
Selected for her maiden Olympics in Rio, she delivered a magnificent campaign. Advancing to the 400m semi-final, she was a key member of the 4x400m relay team that placed eighth in the final.
After dabbling with the 800 metres for a few years, Anneliese turned to the event fulltime in 2017. She raced on nine occasions domestically and placed second at Nationals. It was not until she travelled to the USA in May 2017 she set a PB of 2:02.18. That same year, she ran for the national 4x400m relay team at two major meets - in April she assisted the team to fifth at the World Relays and in August to fifth in the heats at the World Championships.
For a tilt at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, she refocused on the 400m and led the national rankings all summer, starting with 52.17 in December. At the NSW Championships she just held off 17-year-old Bendere Oboya for the title and in the national championships, it was a similar finish with Rubie clocking 51.92 – her equal second fastest time matching what she had run in her heat at the Rio Olympics.
She missed the 2019 world championships with injury and the COVID-effected 2020, but in the summer of 2020/21 she was back in form and placed third at the nationals behind world championships semi-finalist Bendere Oboya and rising junior Ellie Beer.
Anneliese was selected for her second Olympic appearance in Tokyo, representing Australia as a member of the women's 4x400m relay, which placed seventh in their heat, clocking a time of 3:30.61.
Read More
