Early life A native of
Burnaby, British Columbia, he became interested in
athletics through the exploits of his older brother
Don Steen, who became the national
decathlon champion in 1955. - Oct 20, 1966 His brother later named his son
David Steen, who continued the family's athletic tradition. He had his first achievements in the shot put while at Douglas Road Elementary School in Burnaby, winning the school title at age eleven. Steen grew to be a tall man, at six-foot and four and a half inches, and as his physique developed he reached a weight of 235 pounds. The following year he had his best placing in NCAA competition, coming second in the shot put final. This earned him his first major international call-up for the
1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, held in
Perth, Western Australia. There he had a throw of , which would have won all previous titles but on this occasion was a close third behind
Martyn Lucking and
Mike Lindsay. In the 1963
track and field season he achieved a
Canadian record of , Suffering heavily from
infectious mononucleosis, he ultimately missed the entire 1964 season, including the Olympic competition. He took a shot put and discus double at the 1967 national championships and his best throw that year was . Steen was Canadian champion in the shot put in both 1968 and 1969, solidifying an unbeaten run from 1965. The latter title was his last at national level. He returned to defend his shot put title at the
1970 British Commonwealth Games. The 28-year-old successfully topped the podium again, winning the gold medal with a new games record (and lifetime best) of . He was the first man to defend that title since
Harry Hart did so in 1934. This was the last major competition of his career. He was inducted into the
Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1977.
Writing and coaching After his retirement from competition he began coaching young athletes in the 1970s. This included novelist
Lawrence Hill—a keen teenage runner—whom Steen advised to focus on writing after a poor outcome of a fitness test. His athletes also included three Olympians - John Craig, Paul Craig, and Brian Maxwell. Maxwell went on to be the co-inventor of Power Bars. He was a writer and editor for the
Toronto Star from 1968 to 1994. He published
A Bicycle Story in 2022, a mystery novel covering cycling, ageing and crime. ==Personal life==