Steele qualified for the men's 50 m freestyle at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by receiving a Universality place from FINA, in an entry time of 26.34. He challenged seven other swimmers in heat three, including 16-year-old Chris Hackel of Mauritius. He raced to third place in 26.40, just 0.06 of a second off his entry time. Steele failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed sixty-fourth out of 86 swimmers in the preliminaries.