Abby Steiner is a USATF 200 meter dash champion, and we should have seen it coming.
Abby Steiner is perhaps the most popular women’s sprinter in the USA right now. After winning three out of her last four NCAA championships in the 200 meter both indoors and outdoors, she went on to win the American championship just weeks later, and become a 200 meter finalist, and a 4x400 meter relay gold medalist at the world championships. Abby Steiner’s rise to the top of the sprinting world has been nothing short of a surprise for track and field fans. Yet there should be nothing surprising about it. The truth is that she has always been a dominating force on the track, and the we just weren’t always paying attention. But she’s got our attention now, because if we had followed her as far back as when she was in high school, we would have known that the smart money was on her to become the next queen of the sprints, and this is why.
Abby Steiner dominated in high school
Abby Steiner in high school ran for Dublin Coffman high school in Ohio. That is not a state that is known for producing amazing sprinting talent. She was hands down the greatest girls sprinter that state has ever seen. The only state record in the short sprints that she didn’t break, is the 100 meter. Because she is the outdoor state record holder in the 200 meter dash, and the indoor record holder for both the 200 meter and the 60 meter. Outdoors she actually ran 22.73, a time that would have qualified her for the NCAA championships in college, had she already been running at that level. She was actually a 16 time state champion! That basically means that as soon as she got to high school, every race she entered was hers to lose, and she performed as a high school All American four times. Kentucky track and field is the same program that recruited Sydney McLaughlin, Masai Russell, and even transferred in Dezerea Bryant years ago. So it should be no surprise that they snatched up Abby Steiner in recruiting, before anyone else got a chance.
Abby Steiner is actually a two sport athlete
Abby Steiner’s greatness isn’t just about being a winner. When she was in high school the entire time she was winning championships on the track she also played soccer competitively. She wasn’t just on the soccer team, she was an All State soccer player! She admits that soccer was her main focus prior to high school and she went to Kentucky as a dual scholarship athlete, which means the soccer team didn’t just accept her, they really wanted her. When she got there, she started every game of her freshman soccer season playing for an SEC program. So up until that point track and field wasn’t even getting her full attention. She even tore her ACL, and battled back from it only to return to form as an All State soccer player, and state champion in track and field. Abby isn’t just good, she is on another level. So the truth is that every race she would run at the college level, was once again hers to lose. She just had to make sure track and field got all the attention it deserved.
Abby Steiner dominated in college
Which is exactly what Abby Steiner did. As good as she was at soccer, she focused on track and field alone after her freshman season, where she would finish second at the SEC championships in the 200 meter dash. She won the SEC indoor meet as a sophomore but there was no NCAA championship to run at, indoors or outdoors, and we all know why. So whatever else happened in her college career was basically a foregone conclusion. As far as the 200 meter dash is concerned, she was basically perfect for the remaining two years she ran. She won every 200 meter event she entered, except her outdoor season as a junior which was cut short due to injury, where she only raced twice. As a senior she lost in the SEC championships by 3 hundrethds of a second to the woman who was the collegiate record holder Favour Ofili. But that doesn’t really matter because she then went out and obliterated that record in the NCAA meet herself to make it clear that she is the queen of the sprints.
The Bottom Line
Abby Steiner is now a professional, and there is no way to know how her career will fully play out. But what we can be sure of is that Abby Steiner has always been the best at what she does, wherever she has done it. Turning into a professional sprinter likely won’t change that. So the same way that she dominated the competition in high school while only giving the sport half of her attention. And then in college she practically didn’t lose once she did. Is the same way that as a professional she will likely be a threat to win the gold, in any international competition that she enters. Now that we are paying attention it is clear she has already started doing that as soon as her career got started.
KNOW THE GAME. WIN THE GAME.
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