Her parents, Julian and Veronika Walasiewicz, settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where her father found a job as a steel mill worker.

[5] Her family called her Stasia, a common Polish diminutive of her Christian name, which later led to the nickname Stella, as she was known in the United States.

[5] She was asked to stay in Poland and join the Polish national athletic team, and she continued to run in American challenges and games.

[9] In Spring 1933, Walasiewicz appeared at the Championships of Warsaw, where she seized nine gold medals in track and field, including 80 metres hurdling, 4 × 200 relay, and long jump.

[12] On 17 September 1933, in Poznań, she beat two world records in one day: 7.4 seconds for the 60 m and 11.8 seconds for the 100 m. Her Olympic success also won her a scholarship at the Warsaw Institute of Physical Education, where she met some of the most notable Polish athletes of the time, including Jadwiga Wajs, Felicja Schabińska, Maria Kwaśniewska, and Janusz Kusociński.

[13] Stephens was accused by a Polish newspaper reporter of being male and was forced to submit to a genital inspection, which confirmed her gender as female.

After her retirement, she continued to be active in a variety of Polish sport associations in the U.S., where she organized championships and helped young athletes.

Stella Walsh was a contestant on the 16 June 1954 episode of the radio quiz program You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx.

[21][24] Cuyahoga County coroner Samuel Gerber said that Walasiewicz was "socially, culturally and legally" a woman, but that her sex would have been ambiguous at birth.

[25] Walasiewicz was discussed on BBC Radio 4's The Long View in April 2019 when the contentious issue was the "Gender in women's sport".