Dan Steele (born March 20, 1969) is an American

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

der and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete who competed from the early 1990s to 2002. Competing in two

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, he won the bronze medal in the four-man event at

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. He was recently one of the most successful collegiate track and field coaches in America. Stroke: On July 28, 2017, Steele nearly died from a massive hemorrhagic stroke. He stepped away from coaching after the stroke. Steele spent 2.5 months in the hospital relearning how to walk and talk.

Athletic career

A native of

Sherrard, Illinois Sherrard is a village in Mercer County, Illinois, United States. The population was 692 at the 2020 census. Sherrard is home to the Sherrard Junior / Senior High School, home of the Sherrard Tigers. Geography Sherrard is located at (41.318470, ...

, Steele graduated from

Eastern Illinois University Eastern Illinois University is a public university in Charleston, Illinois. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradually expanded into a co ...

with a degree in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

. During the 1990s, he also competed in athletics first in the

400 m hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once ar ...

(winning the 1992 NCAA title) and later in the

decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in Athletics (sport), athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek language, Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ...

, qualifying for the United States Olympic trials for the

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, and

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

, earning his best finishes of fifth in the decathlon in the 2000 trials. Steele even finished eighth in the decathlon at the

1999 World Athletics Championships The 7th World Championships in Athletics, a World Athletic Championships event held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Estadio Olímpico, Seville, Spain, between the August 20 and Augu ...

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. Steele also earned a silver medal at the 1999 pan Am Games.

Coaching career

In 1993, Steele moved from Illinois to

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

to train full-time in track and field. In 2001 he became a volunteer athletics coach for the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. In between coaching stints, Steele competed in

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

for the U.S. both in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

and 2002. At the 2002 Winter Olympics, he earned a bronze medal in the four-man event, a feat that ended a 46-year medal drought for the United States in that sport. Retiring from bobsleigh after the 2002 Winter Olympics, Steele was formerly the Head Track and Field coach at the University of Northern Iowa. Prior to UNI, Steele was the Associate Head Coach at the University of Oregon. In 2009 Steele was named the National Men's Coach of the Year for helping lead the Oregon men to an NCAA Indoor title. Steele was also named the West Region Women's Coach of the Year in 2009 for helping lead the Oregon women to their first Pacific-10 title since 1992. That same year he coached

Ashton Eaton Ashton James Eaton (born January 21, 1988) is a retired American decathlete and two-time Olympic champion, who holds the world record in the indoor heptathlon event. Eaton was the second decathlete (after Roman Šebrle) to break the 9,000-point ...

to the NCAA Decathlon title and Brianne Theisen to the NCAA Heptathlon title. This marked first time in NCAA history both multis winners represented the same institution. The 2005 and 2007 NCAA West Regional Assistant Coach of the Year for Men’s Sprints and Hurdles and the 2008 Pac-10 Coach of the Year has established himself as one of the nation’s top coaches. Steele has guided athletes to eight individual NCAA titles, 24 conference titles, 31 All-America honors, 32 school records, five Pac-10 team titles, and one NCAA team title. In 2015, Dan Steele, whose exemplary resume includes experiences as an Olympic medalist, NCAA champion and head coach, was most recently

Iowa State Cyclones The Iowa State Cyclones are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Iowa State University, located in Ames. The university is a member of the Big 12 Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding 16 varsity teams (6 men's an ...

’s Men’s & Women’s Associate Head Track & Field coach. American Steele Book

Achievements

Book: In 2021, Steele published American Steele, a memoir chronicling his life as an athlete, coach, and stroke survivor.

References

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UNI Head Track and Field Coach

Dan Steele UNI Track & Field Blog

CNN Sports Illustrated profile of 2002 US bobsled team
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, Dan 1969 births American male bobsledders American male hurdlers American male decathletes Athletes (track and field) at the 1999 Pan American Games Bobsledders at the 2002 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in bobsleigh Eastern Illinois University alumni Living people People from Moline, Illinois Sportspeople from Eugene, Oregon University of Oregon people Medalists at the 2002 Winter Olympics Pan American Games medalists in athletics (track and field) Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Eastern Illinois Panthers men's track and field athletes Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games