The eponymous Tortoise & Hare – Rowan and Gabriela. Married since 2019, we have been working together as coach and athlete since May 2024.
Since working together as a team, Gabriela has won three Canadian National Titles, and qualified for the Final of the 2025 World Athletics Championships, finishing 11th in the world.
Read on below for more about us!
Gabriela DeBues-Stafford
Gabriela gets uncomfortable when Rowan brags too much about her accolades and accomplishments, but if she didn’t like it maybe she shouldn’t run so fast!
Since making the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 1500m at just 20 years old, Gabriela (“G” to close friends, but never “Gabby”) has enjoyed a roller coaster ride of a career. She enjoyed a breakout year in 2019, breaking Canadian records seven times in 9 months climaxing with a 6th place finish at the World Championships in Doha. She enjoyed further success with a 5th Place at the Tokyo Olympics, and a 4th at the World Indoor Championships. She remains the 5th fastest woman in the history of the indoor 5000m.
Her 2022, 2023, and 2024 seasons were marred by struggles to overcome injury and rediscover her old form before finally doing so again in 2025. The 2025 season saw her become the first woman in Canadian history to win the 1500m-5000m double at the National Championships and she returned to the 1500m World Final.
Away from the track, Gabriela is an avid knitter, amateur painter, and completed her specialist undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Toronto in June 2019.
Rowan DeBues-Stafford
Rowan brings the tortoise energy to the “Tortoise & Hare” partnership. What he lacks in speed he does his best to make up with planning, attention to detail, and commitment.
Rowan’s first love was rugby – playing for the University of Toronto and coaching passionately with the Peterborough Pagans RFC. However, after meeting Gabriela she pulled him deeper and deeper into the sport of Athletics.
What started as helping Gabriela’s training group in Glasgow avoid getting hit by cars as they did hill workouts in 2018, turned into pacing Gabriela, which turned into occasionally helping the Bowerman Track Club time workouts… Next thing Rowan knew he was living and breathing endurance running; amassing personal experience following the workouts of a variety of different World and Olympic medallist training setups and philosophies along the way.
In his short coaching career, Rowan has coached Gabriela to three Canadian titles and the World Final of the 1500m. Additionally he has coached athletes to Scottish senior titles/national vests, multiple Boston qualifiers, and a FKT on a segment of the Bruce Trail.
Rowan currently works with Mark Rowland at the University of Edinburgh Global Endurance Project.