Angela Chalmers (born September 6, 1963) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retired track and field athlete who competed in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

and

3000 metres 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 3000m shoul ...

. She is the 1992 Olympic bronze medallist in the 3000 metres, and a three-time Commonwealth gold medallist, winning the 1500m and 3000m in 1990, and the 3000m in 1994.

Career

Born in

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

, Canada, Chalmers was always an avid runner. She competed with the Canadian National Jr. Track Team, eventually receiving a scholarship to

Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the final public university established in the Arizona Territory, 13 years before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state. ...

.Chiefs and Champions - Angela Chalmers Chalmers first appeared on the international stage in 1985 in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

at the Universiade, where she finished third in the 3,000 metres. The following year in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, she won the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships for Northern Arizona University. She won the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

as the nation's best female collegiate cross country runner in 1987. This was followed in 1987 with a second place at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

in the 3000 meters, in Indianapolis. She finished 14th in the 3000 metres final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In the year 1990, Chalmers won two

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

titles in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, winning both the 1500 meter race and the 3000 meter race in a World leading time of 8:38.38. In 1992, she qualified for the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

in the cross-country event. even though her father had died in 1984 before the Olympic trials she thought of him while she ran her race. after the race, in which she finished third (behind

Yelena Romanova Yelena Nikolaevna Romanova (russian: Елена Николаевна Романова; 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 he ...

and

Tatyana Dorovskikh Tetyana Apaycheva (née Khamitova, Divorced Samolenko and Dorovskykh, ua, Тетяна Володимирівна Апайчева, née Хамітова, born 12 August 1961) is a Ukrainian retired middle-distance runner who represented the Sov ...

) and qualified for the bronze medal, she explained to reporters about her father, "I said to him when he was in the hospital that I wanted to prove to him that I could do it". She was chosen by her team to be the flag bearer at the opening ceremonies of the

1994 Commonwealth games The 1994 Commonwealth Games ( French: ''XVéme Jeux du Commonwealth'') were held in Victoria, British Columbia, from 18 to 28 August 1994. Ten types of sports were featured at the Victoria Games: athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, ...

, leading her team into

Centennial Stadium Centennial Stadium is a stadium located on the campus of the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The facility was built as a 1967 Canadian Centennial project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Canadian confederati ...

. In 1994 in Victoria, Canada, she retained her Commonwealth 3000 m title in a personal best time of 8:32.17, placing her third on the 1994 World rankings (she did not compete in the 1500 meters). She remains the only woman in the history of the Commonwealth Games to successfully defend the 3000 m race. On September 3, 1994, she won the Grand Prix Final of the Women's 1500 meters held in France with a personal best time of 4:01.61. At the height of her career, Chalmers was ranked as one of the top three middle distance runners in the world. In 2001, Chalmers was inducted into the

Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum is a Canadian museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, dedicated to honoring the history and achievements of sports in Manitoba. The organization began in 1980, and then opened a museum in The Forks in 1993. Afte ...

, and in 2004 into the

BC Sports Hall of Fame The BC Sports Hall of Fame is a museum located in BC Place Stadium, at Gate A, the main entrance to the stadium, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It collects, preserves, studies and interprets materials that relate to British Columbia's spo ...

. She was a recipient of the

National Aboriginal Achievement Award The Indspire Awards, until 2012 the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, are annual awards presented by Indspire in Canada. The awards are intended to celebrate and encourage excellence in the Aboriginal community. About The awards were fi ...

, now the Indspire Awards, in the sports category in 1995. In addition to her successful career, Chalmers was also a spokeswoman. She is of

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

descent, and used her platform as a professional runner to speak out about

Aboriginal peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

. She was inducted into the Athletics Canada Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2019, she was a member of the inaugural class of the Big Sky Hall of Fame. In 1996, just before the

1996 Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, Chalmers retired from her career as a Canadian track and field athlete due to a calf injury. Chalmers is now married to

Simon Doyle Simon Patrick Doyle (born 1966-11-09 in Queensland) is a former Australian 1500 m runner who came fourth in the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland and twelfth in the World Championships' final in Tokyo. In 1990, Doyle won three Grand Prix meetin ...

, an Australian middle distance runner, and is the mother of two children.

International competitions

References

External links

*
Angela Chalmers’s biography
a
Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalmers, Angela 1963 births Living people Canadian female middle-distance runners Canadian female long-distance runners Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Athletes (track and field) at the 1987 Pan American Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1994 Commonwealth Games First Nations sportspeople Olympic track and field athletes of Canada Sportspeople from Brandon, Manitoba Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame inductees Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada Indspire Awards Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade bronze medalists for Canada Medalists at the 1985 Summer Universiade Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games