Stafford

Lucia Stafford is part of the Canadian athletics team in Tokyo’s sister act, racing the women’s 1,500 metres alongside her sister Gabriela DeBues-Stafford. While her older sister holds the Canadian record in the distance and has the Olympic Games and World Championships already on her resume, Lucia has been able to establish herself as one of Canada’s top middle-distance runners.

She will go down in the record books as one of the best University of Toronto Varsity Blues athletes of all time. Stafford was named the OUA and U SPORTS female cross country rookie of the year in 2016, helped the Blues to the 2017 national team title, earned OUA first team all-star and U SPORTS first team All-Canadian honours in all three of her cross country seasons, including winning both races to be named OUA and U SPORTS female athlete of the year in 2019.

On the track, Stafford is a four-time OUA all-star and three-time U SPORTS all-Canadian. In her first season at U of T, she was named the OUA rookie of the year and U SPORTS female performer of the meet, leading the Blues to the 2017 national title. The following season, Stafford was named OUA female most valuable performer.

She was named U of T’s female rookie of the year across all sports in 2016-17, while also being named the school’s female athlete of the year and the OUA female athlete of the year across all sports in 2019-20.

Working to qualify for the Olympic team in 2021, Stafford won the women’s 1,500 metres at Athletics Canada’s Tokyo Qualifier Series event in Guelph, Ont., with a time of 4:06.26. She also finished second at the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Trials in Montreal, stopping the clock at 4:09.61. She had already established a new personal best in the distance at the USATF Golden Games in May, clocking in at 4:05.30.

Stafford is also the Canadian U23 record holder in the 1,000 metres (2:38.73) and she took 1,500-metre gold at the 2017 Pan American U20 Championships.