Staehli

Julie-Anne Staehli put together a defining race at the best possible time. The middle- and long-distance runner obliterated her personal best in the 5,000 metres by 22 seconds at the USATF Golden Games in California on May 9, 2021, to put herself atop the Canadian rankings list ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Finishing the race in 15:02.34, Staehli produced a blistering finishing kick to run past Mexican Laura Galvan Rodriguez over the final strides as all top four finishers, including fellow Canadian Natalia Hawthorn, eclipsed the Olympic Entry Standard of 15:10.

That was just the beginning.

Six days later, at the Track Meet in Irvine, Calif., Stehli shaved another half second off her new personal best, lowering it to 15:01.85. After taking a weekend off, she returned to the track on May 29 to slice more than four more seconds off her time, dipping under the 15-minute mark for the first time in her career to lower her personal best to 14:57.50 at the Portland Track Festival.

Staehli’s 2021 season started off strong when she ran to a third-place finish in the two-mile race at the New Balance Grand Prix in New York City. She smashed the Canadian record in the process with a final time of 9:22.66. She beat Jessica O’Connell’s previous national best by 14 seconds – the first Canadian record of Staehli’s career – and came extremely close to grabbing the Canadian 3,000-metre record of 8:46.50 as well, passing through three kilometres in 8:47.73.

In 2020, Staehli ran the second-fastest indoor 3,000 metres in Canadian history, posting a time of 8:47.97 at a meet in Boston. She was just over a second off O’Connell’s national record. Before the season came to an abrupt halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Staehli was a on a tear, winning five of her six races and setting a personal best in the one-mile race of 4:32.36.

Staehli attended Queen’s University, where she captured 12 individual podium finishes at the Ontario University Athletics and U SPORTS Championships, earning three individual gold medals and becoming the first student-athlete in Queen’s history to be a five-time All-Canadian. In her final year of eligibility, Staehli was named Female Varsity Athlete of the Year. She is a five-time Canadian national team member, most recently qualifying for the 2018 Pan American Cross Country Championships.

In addition to Staehli’s running career, she serves as an assistant coach to the Western Mustangs cross country team, has completed her Master of Science in Sport Psychology and co-founded the ReRUN Shoe Project. With an invested interest in academics and athletics from her experience as a student-athlete, assistant coach and teaching assistant, Staehli plans to bring these disciplines together into her passion for teaching and learning in higher education.