With the Paris Olympics coming up shortly in France, veteran Bucks County track followers might think back a few decades to when one of our own competed in the Games just down the road in Europe.
The year was 1992, the country was Spain, the city was Barcelona and the runner was Shelly Steely.
Steely, who reached the pinnacle of her running career with a seventh-place finish in the 3,000 meters final, did herself and Bishop Conwell High School (now Conwell-Egan) proud in the peak competition of the sport.
Now a 20-year resident of Australia, the 61-year-old Steely acknowledges the memories of that accomplishment 32 years ago still come floating back whenever a Summer Olympiad gets underway.
In the eyes of many, Steely remains the greatest runner – female or male – ever produced in Bucks County.
Her list of accomplishments takes up multiple pages on Wikipedia. She set records in the Philadelphia Catholic League, the Southeastern Conference while competing for the University of Florida and won three national titles in the 3,000, plus a runner-up finish in that event in the 1992 United States Olympic Trials.
After starting a family with her Australian-born husband once her running days ended in 2003, Steely decided to make Down Under her home for the foreseeable future. Her career includes teaching special needs kids at the high school level.
Once she capped her career with a masters victory at the 2002 New York City Marathon, her priorities changed.
“My son, William, was born in 2003 and he’s really the reason I’m in Australia now,” she said in a telephone conversation from her home in Canberra. “He’ll be 21 in September and he’s going to the University of New South Wales in Sydney (IT major).”
As for running, those days are in the past.
“My knees just do not allow it,” said Steely, who was born in Reading but moved to Levittown at an early age. “I don’t even run anymore. I play tennis, which is my new love. The last couple years I started playing social tennis. Now I even have a coach. I laugh, it’s fun. When you make an amazing shot, you can’t believe it.”
She gets back here once a year to visit family and friends. Some things remind her what she still misses living so far away.
“I miss my family and friends the most,” she said. “I have a really nice group of friends I see every time I’m home. That’s always something I always look forward to.
“And the food, oh, the cheesesteaks, the pretzels. I overdo it when I’m home. Too many cheesesteaks, breakfast specials at the Golden Dawn Diner. Dunkin’ Donuts. I love the coffee, the food.”
As for the upcoming Olympic Games, Steely tries to pay attention as much as time will permit, but she’s actually working two jobs and there aren’t a whole lot of “off” hours.
Of course, she can relate to some of the U.S women competing in middle distances on the track. She lived that experience in 1992. She was still in the lead pack (with teammate PattiSue Plumer, who finished fifth) in the final half-mile and things might have gone differently if not for an ill-timed bump or two by fellow runners.
“Going to Barcelona and making the U.S. Olympic team was probably the highlight of my life next to the birth of my son,” she said.
“I sometimes sit and think: ‘I can’t believe that I achieved that.’ To me, I’m just super proud of it. I feel so fortunate that everything went the way it did ... that I finished second in the U.S. trials and made the team. I was in probably the fastest heat in Olympic history for the trials, to make the final. All six of us ran faster than the medal winners did in the finals.
“Regrettably I went into the (Barcelona) finals with tired legs. I ran 8:41, almost a personal best. I pretty much ran my all-time best (in the qualifying round) and then I had to turn around and do it again two days later.”
It’s hard to avoid contact in such a tightly bunched group.
“There were a couple times in that race I almost fell,” she said. “I’m very happy I didn’t. Coming in seventh, I’m really feel happy about.
“The final was a very slow, tactical race and it could have been anybody’s. Positioning was everything. I feel with like about 600 meters to go, my foot was clipped for the second time in the race. People were making their move and I was recovering from that. Just trying to maintain my balance and lost contact with the leaders. I don’t know if I would have had the kick required to get in the top three. I have to say I’m absolutely thrilled how I raced, that my mother (Anne) was there.”
She capped her career in 2002 by winning at New York.
It was a pretty remarkable day, given the circumstances.
“I was sick, had the flu and ran in an old pair of shoes I probably should have thrown away,” she recalled. “Two days before the race I couldn’t even jog to the corner. When I ran it, it was probably the most mentally challenging thing I’ve ever done.”
When she’s home in the United States, she gets a chance to see her two brothers, Bill and Danny, along with her sister, Pam.
Those reunions are red-letter dates on the calendar.
“Some of my friends I’ve had since grade school,” Steely said. “I just feel so fortunate to still have those connections, those girls. It’s such a great feeling to keep those friendships, get to enjoy each other’s company. I only see them once a year but it’s like I’ve never left when I’m around them.”
Was all the success she enjoyed at Conwell both on and off the track a key to her record-setting days at Florida and the national level?
“I do feel as someone who’s been on their own for quite some time now that I’ve been really blessed with just a really good sense of drive, energy and determination.
“I’ve never been diagnosed with ADHD but I would not be surprised if I was. My freshman year, I looked at my class ranking and I was 169 out of 310. That was terrible. I needed to do better. I really got into my studies. By the time I graduated my senior year, I was ranked 13th in my class. I’m so proud of how I was able to study and fortunate to get an athletic scholarship to Florida.”
Fortunate, indeed. In total, it’s been a storybook life for Bucks County’s best and a standard for which all to aspire and admire.
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