Abby Steiner marks her comeback with 400m win in first event since heel surgery

American athlete Abby Steiner recently made her marvelous comeback at the Gamecocks Invitational at Cregger Track, Columbia, South Carolina. The 24-year-old underwent a heel injury in 2023 for a fitness issue she endured for nearly six months.

In 2023, Steiner announced an end to her season after competing at the USA Track and Field Championships. She grabbed fourth place in the 200m race and decided to focus on her well-being for the rest of the year. The athlete underwent surgery in her left heel to extract a bone spur that was pressing against her Achilles tendon.

After a year, the former University of Kentucky athlete is back on track. At the recent Gamecocks Invitational on Saturday, April 6, Steiner opened her season with a grand win. Although a specialist in the 60m, 100m, and 200m races, she won the gold medal in the 400m race at the recent championship.

Steiner blazed to a stunning victory after clocking 51.58s. She was followed by Karimah Davis and Jahnile Registre in second and third place, who clocked 51.98s and 53.99s respectively.

The former Dublin Coffman star made headlines in 2022 at the NCAA Indoor Championship, where she set a new NCAA indoor record by running 22.16 seconds in the 200m race. Her competitors, Anavia Battle of Ohio State and LSU's Favour Ofili, clocked 22.63s and 22.50s, respectively.

That year, Abby Steiner also won two gold medals — in the 4x100m and 4x400m relay races — at the World Championship in Eugene.

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Abby Steiner switched from soccer to track and field in 2018

Abby Steiner at World Athletics Championships Oregon22 - Day Ten

Growing up in Dublin, Ohio, Abby Steiner played soccer from a young age. She started to also adapt to track and field in the eighth grade. Moreover, she entered the University of Kentucky on a dual-sport Scholarship in 2018.

However, after playing in 19 soccer games in her freshman year, Steiner decided to fully focus on track and field. During an interview with Lexington Herald-Leader in 2022, Steiner explained her shift from soccer to track and field.

She shared that track and field helped her to improve her speed and stated:

"Before, with soccer, I'd be training soccer in the fall, then I would come to track. I think really allowing myself to dive fully into the process of the periodization of training that we do, so fall training and then going into indoor and outdoor, it's all really important in developing speed and getting to where you want to be."

Steiner also holds the US indoor record in 200m and 300m races.