Dani Stevens (née Samuels, born 26 May 1988)[2] is an Australian retired discus thrower who in 2009 became the youngest ever female world champion in the event.

She reached the final of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and improved significantly the following year to win the gold medal at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.

Samuels is one of only eleven athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Armand Duplantis, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, Kirani James, Faith Kipyegon, Jana Pittman, and David Storl) to win World Championship titles at the youth, junior, and senior levels of an athletic event.

[citation needed] Her first global appearance came in the shot put at the 2003 World Youth Championships at the age of fifteen, at which she finished 13th in the qualifying rounds.

Samuels also took part in the 2005 Australian Youth Olympic Festival, winning the shot put and taking second place in the discus throw.

She reached the shot put final, finishing twelfth overall, but again it was in the discus where she excelled, winning the bronze medal at the age of seventeen.

[8] A few weeks later Dani took part in her first ever World Championships in Athletics, just missing out on qualifying for the final round of the women's discus competition as the best performing non-qualifier.