Colleen Rosensteel

Colleen Rosensteel was a heavyweight judoka who competed at the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics. Rosensteel twice won medals at the Pan American Games, taking a silver in 1999 and a bronze in 1995. She was a US Champion five times, in 1994-96 and 1998-99. Internationally she won bronze medals in 1999 at the Austrian Open and the Czech Open.

Judo was not her first sport, as Rosensteel started out as a discus thrower in track & field athletics. In 1984 she won a silver medal in discus at the Pan American Junior Championships. In high school at Greensburg Central Catholic in Pennsylvania, she was a four-time state discus champion, and a three-time shot put champion.

She attended the University of Florida, graduating with a degree in education, and later earning a masters’ in exercise and sports science from Florida. Although hampered by throwing the discus left-handed, she competed in track & field for all four years at Florida, finishing fifth, fifth, and ninth in the discus, respectively, at the NCAA Championship in 1987-89, and she was eighth at the 1989 TAC Meet in the discus. She was inducted into the Pennsylvania state High School Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1998.

Personal Best: DT – 54.58 (179-1) (1987).