Anna Steven hopes her career as an international Para sprinter can not only fulfill her personal goals but also inspire other disabled people to try their hand at sport.
Raised on Auckland’s North Shore the former Westlake Girls’ High School student was active in several sports in her younger days, before being diagnosed with cancer aged 12 which led to her undergoing months of chemotherapy and a major surgery, the amputation of her lower right leg.
Keen to return to sport and inspired by watching the feats of double sprint gold medallist Paralympian #197 Liam Malone at the Rio 2016 Games, a fellow blade runner, she attended a Para sport open day when it was suggested she try athletics.
“I acquired an amputation at a later stage of life than those who are born with a limb deficiency,” she explains. “Following my amputation, I had to re-learn how to walk, so running gives me a sense of autonomy and freedom.”
Taking up the sport competitively at the age of 16 she excelled over the shorter sprint distances and just six months after first stepping on a track was selected to compete in the 100m and the 200m at the 2017 World Para Athletics Junior Championships in Nottwil.
Anna quickly graduated as a senior athlete and in 2019 set an Oceania record in the Women’s 100m T64, placing fifth in her heat at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai, as well as finishing seventh in the Women’s 200m T64 final in another Oceania record.
She extended her international experience competing at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. The Para sprinter impressed in the Women’s 200m T64, setting a personal best and Oceania record mark of 28.60 in the heats before placing eighth in the final.
Coaching herself in collaboration with Tony Catchpole, Anna trains between four and five track sessions per week and at least twice a week in the gym. Putting on hold her international ambitions for several years to focus on her study – she graduated in 2024 with a Bachelor of Science – she earned selection in the Women’s 200m T64 at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
In the French capital, Anna claimed a second successive Paralympic Games eighth place finish in the Women’s 200m T64, recording a time of 29.37.
Anna likes to hang out with family and friends and has recently developed a passion for surfing.
