Stephens attended Williamstown High School, and while in first form in 1941 he failed to qualify for his house sports team.
[3] Still largely unknown in 1953, Stephens competed in the athletics competition of the 4th World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest, Romania, aiming to meet and learn the training regime of Emil Zatopek.
He continued implementing these training lessons at home, and began achieving world-class times over distances of 3 and 6 miles.
An official enquiry was convened to consider disqualification, to which Stephens apologised, telling the panel that the "heat must have got to me ... and I went troppo!"
[7] Stephens set the 6 mile world record on 25 January 1956 at Olympic Park Stadium with a time of 27 minutes and 54.0 seconds.