Anne Rochelle Steely Ramirez (born October 23, 1962), née Anne Rochelle Steely, is a former

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance ru ...

who competed internationally for the United States. She specialized in the 3,000 meters on the track and later competed in

road running Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road. This differs from track and field on a regular track and cross country running over natural terrain. These events are usually classified as long-distance ru ...

events. She made her international debut in cross country and helped the United States the women's team title at the

IAAF World Cross Country Championships World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics (formerly the IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the In ...

in 1985. Her focus changed to the 3,000 meters, a distance in which she was a two-time US champion (outdoors in 1991 and indoors in 1992). She reached the final of that event at the

1991 World Championships in Athletics The 3rd World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan between August 23 and September 1. 1517 athletes from 167 countries partic ...

and the

1992 Barcelona Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

. Steely's performances deteriorated and she was diagnosed with

hyperthyroidism Hyperthyroidism is a endocrine disease in which the thyroid gland produces excessive amounts of thyroid hormones. Thyrotoxicosis is a condition that occurs due to elevated levels of thyroid hormones of any cause and therefore includes hyperth ...

. However, she made an athletic comeback in 1998 and she won two national road titles, as well as appearing at the

Goodwill Games The Goodwill Games were an international sports competition created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. In 1979, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan caused the United States and other ...

and

IAAF World Half Marathon Championships The World Athletics Road Running Championships is a biennial international road running competition organised by World Athletics. The competition was launched as the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in 1992 and held annually until 2010. It wa ...

that year. She made one more appearance at the World Half Marathon event in 2000, but retired to focus on education studies.

Career

Early life and college career

Steely was born in

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; ) is a city in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 95,112 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fourth-most populous ...

, and attended Bishop Conwell High School in

Levittown, Pennsylvania Levittown is a census-designated place (CDP) and planned community in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area. The population was 52,699 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

. She received an athletic scholarship to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where she ran for the

Florida Gators track and field The Florida Gators track and field program represents the University of Florida in the sport of track and field. The program includes separate men's and women's teams, both of which compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic As ...

team in

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) competition. Steely was fifth in the

10,000 meters The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship-level events. The r ...

at the NCAA Outdoors in 1983, but found greater success over shorter distances the following year: she won both the

5000 meters The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a sta ...

and

3000 meters The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000 m shou ...

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC) titles. She was third in the 3,000 meters at the 1984 NCAA Outdoors and made two podium finishes at the

USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships The USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships is an annual track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. Since the year 1992, in the years which feature a Summer Oly ...

(third over 5,000 meters, second over 3,000 meters). She also reached the semi-finals of the US Olympic Track and Field Trials that year.Shelly Steely

USATF USA Track & Field (USATF) is a United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking (known as the sport of athletics outside the US). The USATF was known between 1979 and 1 ...

. Retrieved on April 10, 2011. In her final year at Florida, she took a sweep of the SEC long-distance titles, winning the 3,000, 5,000 and 10,000-meter distance races. During her time as a Gator runner, she won five

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

n honors and nine All-SEC honors, and was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2006. Steely made her international debut for the United States in 1985, and her fifteenth-place finish at the

1985 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 1985 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Lisbon, Portugal, at the Sports Complex of Jamor on March 24, 1985. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald. Complete results for men, junior men, women, medallis ...

helped the American women (including

Cathy Branta Cathy Easker (née Branta; born January 6, 1963) is a retired middle-distance and long-distance runner from Slinger, Wisconsin, USA. After achieving Wisconsin state championship high school record times (for division 2 girls) in cross country in b ...

and Betty Springs) to the long race team title. She made two more appearances at that competition, taking part in the 1989 and 1990 editions. She also competed on the international cross country circuit in Europe, including a win at the

Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños The Cross Internacional de Venta de Baños is a cross country running competition that takes place in Venta de Baños, Castile and León, Spain. The competition was first held in 1980 and since then it has been held every year in mid-December. Amon ...

World and Olympic competition

She began training in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

and improved her best times in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters in 1990, and was ranked highly at the national level. She began to expand her oeuvre to include

and that year she took wins at the

Cooper River Bridge Run The Cooper River Bridge Run is a one-way road running event across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge held in the cities of Mount Pleasant and Charleston in South Carolina, on the first Saturday in April (had been first Sunday of April in 1978, fi ...

and

Great Cow Harbor 10K Northport is a village in the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, on the North Shore of Long Island, New York, United States. The population was 7,347 at the time of the 2020 census. Initially designated Great Cow Harbour by 17th-century En ...

races, as well as shorter distance wins at the Fifth Season Race and the Jean Bouin Memorial in Spain. The following year saw her make a career breakthrough on the track. She won the national title in the 3,000 meters with a significant personal best run of 8:49.00 minutes. This gained her a place on the national team for the

. Steely ran a personal record of 8:48.54 minutes in the qualifying rounds, only finishing behind two eventual medalists (

Susan Sirma Susan Sirma (born May 26, 1966) is a retired Kenyan middle-distance runner best known for winning a bronze medal over 3000 metres at the 1991 World Championships in Athletics, 1991 World Championships, becoming the first black African woman to win ...

and

Yelena Romanova Yelena Nikolaevna Romanova (; 20 March 1963 – 28 January 2007) was a Russian distance runner. She won an Olympic gold medal in 1992. She was found dead of unknown causes at age 43 in her flat in Volgograd Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. ...

). She did not perform as well in the final, however, and ended the competition in fourteenth place. She ended her season with road wins at the Phoenix 10K and Senior Bowl 10K. She claimed her second national title at the start of the following year, winning the 3,000 meters at the

USA Indoor Track and Field Championships The USA Indoor Track and Field Championships is an annual indoor track and field competition organized by USA Track & Field, which serves as the American national championships for the sport. In years which feature a World Indoor Championships i ...

with a time of 8:51.29 minutes. A third title followed on the roads that May as she took the 5,000 meters U.S. title in

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, second-most populous city in Iowa. The city lies o ...

. In the outdoor season she ran a career best time of 8:41.28 minutes for the 3,000 meters and her runner-up placing at the Olympic Trials saw her make the US Olympic Team for the first time. At the

, both Steely and

PattiSue Plumer Patricia Susan "PattiSue" Plumer (born April 27, 1962) is an American former middle-distance and long-distance runner. She is a two-time Olympian, finishing 13th in the 3000-m final in 1988 in Seoul, before going on to finish 10th in the 1500-m ...

(the trials winner) made the event final and Steely came seventh, two spots behind her compatriot.

Switch to roads and retirement

She won the

Carlsbad 5000 The Carlsbad 5000 is an annual 5K run, five kilometer (3.1 mile) road running event that takes place each spring in the city of Carlsbad, California, along the north coast of San Diego County, California, San Diego County. Organization The event i ...

the following March. Steely was the 1993 USA Outdoor runner-up in the 3,000 meters but was replaced in the national team for the

1993 World Championships in Athletics The 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Neckarstadium, Stuttgart, Germany between 13 and 22 August with the participation of 187 nations. Having or ...

. Her performances waned over the next three years and she did not compete at all in 1996. She was later diagnosed with a hyperthyroid condition. Steely returned to compete in 1998 and ran frequently, mainly out of necessity as she no longer had a sponsor. She was in the top three at the 1998 USA Outdoors in the 10,000 meters, came fourth in the event at the

1998 Goodwill Games The 1998 Goodwill Games was the fourth edition of the international sports competition the Goodwill Games, which were created by Ted Turner in reaction to the political troubles surrounding the Olympic Games of the 1980s. The competition was held ...

, and ranked second nationally in the distance that year. She won the US titles in the 25-kilometer and 10-mile events that year,James, Bud (2010-09-07)
Park Forest Scenic 10 mile

Association of Road Racing Statisticians The Association of Road Racing Statisticians is an independent, non-profit organization that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics regarding road running races. The primary purpose of the ARRS is to maintain a valid list of world road record ...

. Retrieved on 2011-04-11. as well as runner-up placing in the national 12-kilometer and

half marathon A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish, or shortcu ...

events. Her performance over the latter distance gained her a spot at the

1998 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships The 7th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships was held on September 27, 1998, in the city of Uster, Switzerland. A total of 236 athletes, 139 men and 97 women, from 54 countries took part. Detailed reports on the event and an appraisal of the res ...

, where she placed 42nd overall. She ran in the 10,000 meters at the 1999 USA Outdoor Championships (coming fifth) and competed at the

2000 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships The 9th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships was held on November 12, 2000, in the city of Veracruz, Mexico. A total of 182 athletes, 121 men and 61 women, from 52 countries took part. Detailed reports on the event and an appraisal of the results ...

. However, she moved on from her athletic career to focus on obtaining an

Educational specialist The Education Specialist, also referred to as Educational Specialist or Specialist in Education (Ed.S., EdS or S.Ed.), is a specialist degree in education which is an advanced professional degree in the U.S. that is designed to provide knowledge ...

degree.

Personal bests

*1500 m – 4:05.07 mins (1992) *3000 m – 8:41.28 mins (1992) *5000 m – 15:08.67 mins (1992) *10,000 m – 32:41.14 mins (1990) *Half marathon – 1:13:33 hrs (1998)

International competition record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Steely, Shelly Living people 1962 births Sportspeople from Reading, Pennsylvania Track and field athletes from Pennsylvania American female long-distance runners American female middle-distance runners American female cross country runners Olympic track and field athletes for the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Pan American Games track and field athletes for the United States Athletes (track and field) at the 1999 Pan American Games Florida Gators women's cross country runners Florida Gators women's track and field athletes Competitors at the 1998 Goodwill Games 20th-century American sportswomen