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Gabriela DeBues-Stafford

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Gabriela DeBues-Stafford
Women's 1500m final at 2019 World Athletics Championships 1.jpg
De-Bues Stafford in the 1500 m final at the 2019 World Athletics Championships
Personal information
Born (1995-09-13) 13 September 1995 (age 29)
London, Ontario, Canada[1]
EducationUniversity of Toronto[2]
EmployerNike
Height1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)[1]
SpouseRowan DeBues-Stafford (m. 2019)
Sport
CountryCanada
SportAthletics/track
Event(s)Middle-, Long-distance running
University teamVarsity Blues
Coached byTrent & Hilary Stellingwerff
Achievements and titles
Personal bests
Medal record
Athletics
Representing  Canada
NACAC Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Toronto 1500 m
Summer Universiade
Silver medal – second place 2015 Gwangju 1500 m
Updated on 6 February 2022

Gabriela Maria DeBues-Stafford (née Stafford, born 13 September 1995)[3] is a Canadian middle- and long-distance runner. A two-time Olympian, she placed fifth in the women's 1500 metres at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. DeBues-Stafford holds the NACAC area record over the indoor 5000 metres, which she set in February 2022.

She holds six Canadian national outdoor and indoor records over distances from the 1500 to 5000 metres. In addition, she won a silver medal at the 2015 Summer Universiade.

Career

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Early career

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DeBues-Stafford was born in London, Ontario and grew up in Toronto.[1][4] Her father James Stafford was a former competitive runner and represented Canada at four World Cross Country Championships.[2] She and her younger sister Lucia initially trained in competitive Irish dancing, but DeBues-Stafford switched to running, subsequently joined by Lucia to spend more time with her father and sister. Both sisters were diagnosed with Graves' disease as teenagers, though DeBues-Stafford's case would prove more manageable than Lucia's in the years ahead, hindering the latter's athletics career.[4]

In Grade 12, DeBues-Stafford won the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations' cross country running championship.[4] She was subsequently accepted to study psychology at the University of Toronto's Victoria College, during which time she competed for the Varsity Blues athletics squad.[5] Appearing at a senior international championship for the first time, DeBues-Stafford won the silver medal in the women's 1500 m event at the 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju.

2016–21

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DeBues-Stafford competing in the women's 1500 m at the 2016 World Indoor Championships in Portland, finishing twelfth in the heats and thus not advancing to the event final. In July 2016, she was officially named to Canada's Olympic team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[6] She placed ninth in her heat of the women's 1500 m event, and twenty-fifth overall, and thus did not advance to the semi-final phase of the competition.[7]

The following year, she made her World Athletics Championships debut at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics, where she placed twenty-first in the semi-finals of the 1500 m and did not advance.

In a series of championships appearances in 2018, DeBues-Stafford competed for Canada at the World Indoor Championships and the 2018 Commonwealth Games, in neither case advancing past the heats. At the 2018 NACAC Championships in Toronto she won the bronze medal with a time of 4:07.36. While competing at the British Grand Prix on the 2018 Diamond League, she met coach Andy Young and, following discussions, agreed to move to train in Glasgow, where Young's other students included Laura Muir.[8]

DeBues-Stafford enjoyed a strong 2019, breaking the national records for the indoor mile and 5,000 metres and the outdoor 1,500 metre, mile and 5,000 metre records. She would go on to add the indoor 1,500 metre record in 2020.[9] Making her second Worlds appearance at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, she advanced to the final in the women's 1500 m event and placed sixth with a time of 3:56.12.[5] In doing so, she achieved her previously stated goal of running in the final in a time under four minutes.[8] She remarked afterward that "I really believed I had a chance at a medal, even 200 meters from the finish," but that "once I was into the homestretch, I knew I didn't have it." Following this, she moved to train at Portland's Bowerman Track Club under Shalane Flanagan.[10]

With the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the 2020 Summer Olympics by a year, DeBues-Stafford continued to train with a focus on strength and endurance work. As the 2021 season started, she broke the 1 minute 59 seconds barrier at the Portland Track Festival's 800 metres event, becoming one of only three women in the world who have run under 1:59 in the 800 metres, 3:57 in the 1500 metres, and 14:45 in the 5000 metres.[11] She was again named to the Canadian Olympic team, this time alongside her sister Lucia. Both competed in the women's 1500 m event in Tokyo, with Gabriela advancing to the event final while Lucia finished thirteenth in the semi-finals, narrowly missing being amongst the final twelve.[12] Gabriela placed fifth in the Olympic final.[13]

2022–present

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On 11 February 2022, at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston, DeBues-Stafford broke the North, Central American and Caribbean record in the indoor 5000 metres with a time of 14m 31.38s, improving the mark set by USA's Shalane Flanagan in 2009 by more than 15 seconds.[14] In her first championship appearance of the year at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, she finished fourth in the 3000 m, narrowly missing the podium.[15]

In April 2022, DeBues-Stafford announced that she was relocating from Portland to Victoria, citing the ongoing doping controversy around former training partner Shelby Houlihan as having been detrimental to her preparations for the Tokyo Olympics.[16] Due to developing a stress reaction in her sacrum, she was forced to end her season prematurely, foregoing both the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2022 World Athletics Championships.[17] Her recovery continued through the 2023 athletics season.[18]

Personal life

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The daughter of James Stafford and Maria Luisa Gardner, DeBues-Stafford has a younger brother, Nicholas, and her sister Lucia. Her mother passed away due to leukemia when she was 13.[4] Both Gabriela and Lucia are trilingual, speaking English, French and Spanish.[19]

DeBues-Stafford is bisexual.[10] She dyed her hair in rainbow colours for the 2021 athletic season due to their association with the LGBT community.[20] She met her husband, Rowan DeBues while moving into her dormitory at the University of Toronto. They married in 2019, each taking on hyphenate surnames.[10]

Competition record

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Representing  Canada
Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
2013 Pan American Junior Championships Medellín, Colombia 8th 1500 m 4:53.35
2014 World Junior Championships Eugene, United States 9th 3000 m 9:14.97
2015 Universiade Gwangju, South Korea 2nd 1500 m 4:19.27
2016 World Indoor Championships Portland, United States 12th (h) 1500 m 4:11.46
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 25th (h) 1500 m 4:09.45
2017 World Championships London, United Kingdom 21st (sf) 1500 m 4:08.51
2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 13th (h) 1500 m 4:09.94
Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia 14th (h) 1500 m 4:09.59
NACAC Championships Toronto, Canada 3rd 1500 m 4:07.36
2019 World Championships Doha, Qatar 6th 1500 m 3:56.12
2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 5th 1500 m 3:58.93
2022 World Indoor Championships Belgrade, Serbia 4th 3000 m 8:42.89

Personal bests

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Outdoor

Indoor

References

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  1. ^ a b c "2018 CWG bio". Retrieved 29 April 2018.
  2. ^ a b College team bio
  3. ^ "Gabriela Stafford". IAAF. 18 March 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d Scace, Matt (23 July 2021). "How the Stafford sisters turned a wee sibling rivalry into two Olympic track careers". The National Post. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  5. ^ a b Zulak, Alexa (6 December 2019). "After studying women role models, Tokyo 2020 hopeful Gabriela DeBues-Stafford became one herself". U of T News. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  6. ^ Hossain, Asif (11 July 2016). "Athletics Canada nominates largest squad to Team Canada for Rio". Canadian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  7. ^ Weisfeld, Oren (1 August 2021). "Lucia Stafford is 'super proud' to be an Olympian — like the 'superheroes' she used to admire". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  8. ^ a b Kelly, Madeleine (7 January 2019). "Gabriela Stafford is moving across the world". Canadian Running. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Progression NR 5000 metres Canada - run123". Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  10. ^ a b c Webb, Karleigh (20 July 2021). "Canada's Gabriela DeBues-Stafford boldly pursues her Olympic goal, out and queer". Out Sports. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  11. ^ "DeBues-Stafford runs 800 metres in under 2 minutes in latest Olympic standard feat". CBC Sports. 30 May 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  12. ^ Harrison, Doug (4 August 2021). "Gabriela DeBues-Stafford to run for Olympic gold medal in 1,500 metres". CBC Sports. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  13. ^ Hambleton, Brittany (6 August 2021). "Kipyegon outkicks Hassan for Olympic 1,500m gold, sets Olympic record". Canadian Running. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  14. ^ Dickinson, Marley (11 February 2022). "Canada's Gabriela DeBues-Stafford breaks North American 5,000m record". RunningMagazine.ca. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  15. ^ Dickinson, Marley (18 March 2022). "Gabriela DeBues-Stafford finishes fourth in 3,000m". Canadian Running. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  16. ^ Ewing, Lori (12 April 2022). "Canadian runner DeBues-Stafford leaves training centre over Houlihan burrito case". CBC Sports. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  17. ^ "Canadian runner DeBues-Stafford forced to shut down season due to injury". CBC Sports. 15 June 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  18. ^ Ewing, Lori (2 February 2023). "Lucia Stafford finding success on the track back in Toronto with longtime coach". The Globe & Mail. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  19. ^ Kelly, Madeleine (23 June 2021). "The best sister in the world". Canadian Running. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  20. ^ Zeigler, Cyd (6 August 2021). "Gabriela Debues-Stafford's hair embraced the LGBTQ community despite Olympic rules". Outsports. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
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