Dani's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Athletics
Event: Discus Throw
Olympic History: Beijing 2008 8th, London 2012 12th, Rio 2016 4th, Tokyo 2020 qual round
Highlights: 2009 World champion, 2014 & 2018 Commonwealth champion
Coach: Denis Knowles
Year Born: 1988
State Born: Sydney, NSW
About Dani
Discus thrower Dani Stevens (Samuels) has pretty much achieved it all in athletics. One of a rare few to have won youth, junior and senior world titles, she has also stood on the top of the dais multiple times at the Commonwealth Games and World University Games.
Her name is throughout the record books including Commonwealth, Oceania, Australian and Commonwealth Games, but one prize has eluded her and that is Olympic success, an arena she has visited since Beijing 2008.
Stevens started her journey in Little Athletics, aged six in the ‘tiny tots.’ She was a very talented athlete and went to Westfields Sports High for basketball, however, the athletics staff and coaches kept her involved in track and field.
In year 10, she was selected for the World Youth Championships and she then switched her focus to athletics but would continue to play club basketball into her senior years.
Stevens initially trained with Hayden Knowles, but later moved to Hayden’s dad, Denis, who to this day, continues to coach Stevens.
Denis became a key figure in her life especially when her father Mark passed away in a bicycle accident when she was in her teens.
After a rocky start to her international career, placing 25th out of 27 athletes at the 2003 World Youth Championships, she has gone on to become the most successful discus thrower in the Commonwealth.
At just 17, she won a medal at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. She made her Olympic debut in Beijing in 2008 – the youngest member of the athletics team. In the discus final, she put in some solid throws, however, she did not finish in the final eight.
The next year, she was on top of the world – winning the gold in the discus at the IAAF 2009 World Championships – the youngest ever winner of the event.
She competed in her second Olympic Games in London 2012 where she threw 63.97m in the qualification round and finished 12th in the final with a throw of 60.40m.
She made much progress over the next few years, including a breakthrough competition at the 2017 World Championships in London where she placed second, with an extortionary performance of 69.64m. It was a 1.65m personal best and would have won the last 12 world championships and five Olympic Games and was the third-longest throw in the world for 16 years.
At Rio 2016, she came so close to the podium, placing fourth and just 44cm from the bronze.
At the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, she defended her crown winning by eight metres.
Injured in 2018 and 2019, in her first throw back was in December 2019 and she achieved the Tokyo 2020 qualifying standard, but just prior to COVID cancelling events, including the Tokyo Olympics Stevens required urgent spinal surgery after an accident in the gym.
She wrote on her Instagram: “I axed myself doing a lift. It took about a week to realise the full damage that I had done as the nerve pathway that runs down the front of my right arm (C5) had completely shut down due to compression. My C4/5 disc (neck) had popped out and shattered in two. One part pushing on my spinal cord and the other pushing on the nerve root. I was told they couldn't be sure whether I would get full function back or not, let alone throw discus again.”
It took a good 10-11 months for the nerve to "wake up" and feel normal for Stevens. She gradually resumed training in late 2020 and decided to take her first throw in competition for 16 months at the Sydney Track Classic in March 2021 and won with a throw of 63.36m. She was thrilled to be back competing.
“It’s been really hard and really frustrating, but I’m out the other side now," she said. "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 come back and throw just short of Olympic qualifying is pretty good when I think about it.”
In April 2021 she won her 14th national discus title – the highest number by any Australian in a single event. The win secured her automatic Olympic selection for Tokyo – her fourth Games. In Tokyo she threw 58.77m in the qualifying round, to rank 22nd overall and miss a place in a fourth Olympic final.
Sadly it would be her final competition, retiring three months later in October 2021.
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