Valerie Adams

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Dame
Valerie Adams
Valerie Vili Berlin 2009-2.jpg
Adams after her victory at the 2009 World Championships
Personal information
Birth nameValerie Kasanita Adams
Born (1984-10-06) 6 October 1984 (age 39)
Rotorua, New Zealand
Height193 cm (6 ft 4 in) [1]
Weight120 kg (265 lb) (2012)
Sport
CountryNew Zealand
Sport Athletics
Event Shot put
Coached by Kirsten Hellier (1998–2010)
Jean-Pierre Egger (2010–present)
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)Outdoor: 21.24 m (2011)
Indoor: 20.98 m (2013)

Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams DNZM (formerly Vili; born 6 October 1984) is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres (69.7 ft) outdoors and 20.98 metres (68.8 ft) indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.

Contents

Adams was the third woman to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletics event, following the feats of Yelena Isinbayeva and Jana Pittman. She was the first woman to win four consecutive individual titles at the IAAF World Championships. Adams had a winning streak that extended to 56 wins at elite-level competitions, which started in August 2010 and ended in July 2015. [2] She was the IAAF World Athlete of the Year in 2014 and the Track & Field News Athlete of the Year in 2012 and 2013. She had the longest shot put performance of the season every year from 2006 to 2014, bar 2008 when she was second to Natallia Mikhnevich (later banned for doping that year).

Adams won silver medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics (amended to a gold after prior winner Nadzeya Astapchuk was disqualified for doping), 2016 Summer Olympics, 2005 World Championships in Athletics, and the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and 2018. She was also a bronze medallist at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships. While still a teenager, Adams was a finalist at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics and the 2004 Summer Olympics.

At national level, she has won fifteen shot put titles at the New Zealand Athletics Championships between 2001 and 2018, as well as having a hammer throw national title in 2003. Adams also won four times at the Australian Athletics Championships between 2004 and 2008. From 2006 to 2012 she was chosen as the New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year seven times consecutively and has been awarded the Lonsdale Cup on five occasions in recognition as the leading national athlete in an Olympic sport.

Adams retired from athletics competition in 2022. In that year she was appointed to the board of High Performance Sport New Zealand, and was the subject of the documentary Dame Valerie Adams: More than Gold .

Career

Early career

In 1998 Adams met former javelin thrower Kirsten Hellier, who would become her coach for the next 11 years. Adams first came to prominence when winning the World Youth Championships in 2001, with a throw of 16.87 m. She followed this up in 2002 by becoming World Junior champion, throwing 17.73 m, and gained her first international senior placing with the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, throwing 17.45 m.

She finished fifth at the 2003 World Championships at eighteen years of age. At her first Olympics in 2004, Adams finished seventh (after two athletes' subsequent disqualification), while still recovering from an appendectomy she had just weeks before the competition.

The following year Adams finished third at the World Championships with a personal best throw of 19.87 m. When the original winner, Nadzeya Astapchuk, was disqualified following a 2013 retest of her drug sample from the competition that was found to be positive, Adams' original bronze medal was upgraded to silver. [3] Adams originally finished second at the World Athletics Final in 2005, but was promoted to gold after Astapchuk's results were annulled. [4] At the 2006 Commonwealth Games Adams won the gold medal, breaking the 20-year-old Commonwealth Games record of 19.00 m with a throw of 19.66 m.

First world and Olympic titles

In 2007, Adams went to the Osaka World Championships as a favourite to take a medal due to her being one of only three women to throw over 20 m before the championships. In qualifying, Adams led the field with a throw of 19.45 m. Adams held second place behind Nadzeya Astapchuk throughout the final, but responded well in the last round with a mammoth throw and Commonwealth record of 20.54 m to take the gold. This made Adams one of few female athletes ever to take IAAF [5] World Titles at youth, junior and senior level. [6]

In 2008 Adams broke the Oceania record in winning her first World Indoor Title in Valencia (20.19 m). At the Beijing Olympics, she qualified for the final with the longest distance thrown, 19.73 metres, on her first attempt. She won the gold with a throw of 20.56 m, a personal best, beating Belarusian thrower Natallia Mikhnevich. It was the first Olympic gold medal in track and field for New Zealand since John Walker won the 1500 metre race in 1976. She also won the New Zealand Sports Award of the year in 2008.

At the 2009 Grande Prêmio Rio in Brazil Adams won the competition with a new personal best and Oceanian area record of 20.69 m. The throw was also the world leading distance for the event. [7] In August, Adams won at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin with a throw of 20.44 metres, ahead of the German Nadine Kleinert and Gong Lijiao of China.

At the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships Adams was defeated by Nadzeya Astapchuk by a large margin, in spite of the New Zealander setting a continental record of 20.49 m. [8] Adams announced on 28 March 2010 that she would no longer be coached by Kirsten Hellier after an 11-year partnership. [9] In April 2010 she announced her new coach was Didier Poppe. [10]

Adams was consistently beaten by Nadzeya Astapchuk in the big meetings that season. She set a meeting record and season's best of 20.37 m at the Athletics Bridge meet in Slovakia, later saying that a change in her technique that April had begun to pay dividends. [11]

Later that season she won at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup with a season's best mark of 20.85 m and also competed at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, where she set a Games record mark of 20.47 m to retain her title. In late 2010 Jean-Pierre Egger took over as her coach from Poppe. [12]

World and Olympic repeat

Adams won the 2011 World Championships equalling the championship record 21.24 met by Natalya Lisovskaya in 1987. [13] At the 2012 World Indoor Championships Adams won the competition with a throw of 20.54 m, a new indoors personal best. [14]

Adams originally won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics [15] but was promoted to the gold medal after the initial Olympic champion, Nadzeya Astapchuk, failed two drug tests, one a day before the event and the second on the day of the event. [16]

The Belarusian Ostapchuk tested positive for metenolone which is classified as an anabolic agent on the list of banned substances. [16] Adams later recounted how she initially believed Chef de Mission Dave Currie was "telling fibs" upon being told the news. [17] She received the gold medal from the New Zealand Governor-General, Sir Jerry Mateparae, at a special ceremony in Auckland on 19 September 2012.

Fourth world title

Adams won her fourth world championship gold at the 2013 World Championships games in Moscow in August 2013. [18] Her fourth gold medal surpassed Astrid Kumbernuss for most all time by a female shotputter and made her the first woman to win four straight titles in an event at the competition. [19] On 27 September, Adams underwent surgery on her left ankle and right knee, [20] and in March 2014 won her third world indoor championship at Sopot in Poland with a distance of 20.67 m. Her gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, where she was New Zealand's flag-bearer, was her 54th consecutive event win; the streak began in August 2010. [21]

Later career

Injury caused Adams to withdraw from an attempted defence of her shot put title at the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup and she was ruled out for most of 2015 season for the same reason. During this period she underwent surgeries on her shoulder and elbow in late 2014 and returned for a further operational on her knee in August 2015. [22]

Adams finished second in shot put at the 2016 Summer Olympics with a distance of 20.42 m. She was beaten by Michelle Carter who had a personal best of 20.63 m with her last put of the competition. [23]

In the 2017 New Year Honours, Adams was named a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. [24] She skipped the entire track and field that season due to pregnancy.

Adams came in second in the shot put at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia, with a seasonal best put of 18.70 m. [25]

Adams won her fourth Olympic medal in July 2021, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning a bronze medal with a best put of 19.62 metres (64.4 ft). [26]

Adams announced her retirement from athletics competition on 1 March 2022, but will continue to coach Lisa Adams. [27] In October 2022, the documentary film Dame Valerie Adams: More than Gold was released in New Zealand cinemas, depicting Adams' childhood, sporting career and the lead-up to the 2020 Summer Olympics. [28]

Sports administration

In 2022 Adams was appointed to the board of High Performance Sport New Zealand. [29] As at 2023 Adams is serving her third term on the World Athletics Athletes' Commission. [30] In 2019 she was elected deputy chair of the Commission and in 2023 was elected chairperson. [30] She is also serving as chairperson of the Oceania Athletics Athletes' Commission. [30]

Personal life

Adams (right) in 2017, after her investiture as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the Governor-General, Dame Patsy Reddy GGNZ investiture 26 April 2017 - Valerie Adams.jpg
Adams (right) in 2017, after her investiture as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the Governor-General, Dame Patsy Reddy

Adams was born in Rotorua, New Zealand, to a Tongan mother (Lilika Ngauamo) [31] and an English father (Sydney Adams). [32] Her father, who settled in New Zealand after service in the Royal Navy, had a total of 18 children with five women. [33] Adams' youngest sibling is NBA player Steven Adams, and two other brothers played professional basketball in New Zealand. [33] Their sister, Lisa Adams, is a paralympic champion shot-putter and discus thrower who has cerebral palsy. [34]

Adams was married to Bertrand Vili, a discus thrower from New Caledonia. [35] [36] They married in 2004 and divorced in early 2010. [37] Adams married Gabriel Price, a friend since childhood, at Temple View in Hamilton on 2 April 2016. [38] [39] The couple have two children: a daughter born in 2017 and a son. [40] [41] In 2023, Adams announced her separation from Price after nearly 7 years of marriage. [42]

She is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [43]

Adams' training base is at the Centre national de sport de Macolin in Switzerland. [44]

Personal bests

EventMarkDateLocationNotes
Shot put outdoor21.24 m29 August 2011 Daegu, South Korea AR NR
Shot put indoor20.98 m28 August 2013 Zürich, Switzerland AR NR
Discus throw 58.12 m31 March 2004 Wanganui, New Zealand
Hammer throw 58.32 m6 April 2002 Auckland, New Zealand

Seasonal bests

SeasonOutdoorRankIndoor
2020 18.814th
2019
2018 19.317th
2017
2016 20.423rd19.25
2015 18.7913th
2014 20.591st20.67
2013 20.901st20.98
2012 21.111st20.81
2011 21.241st20.51
2010 20.861st20.49
2009 21.071st
2008 20.562nd20.19
2007 20.541st
2006 20.201st
2005 19.873rd
2004 19.298th18.22
2003 18.9314th
2002 18.4020th
2001 17.0868th
2000 15.72
1999 14.15

International competitions

Adams celebrated her first world title in 2007 Osaka07 D2A Valerie Vili Nadine Kleinert.jpg
Adams celebrated her first world title in 2007
Adams competing at the 2011 World Championships Valerie Adams Daegu 2011.jpg
Adams competing at the 2011 World Championships
Adams atop the podium at the 2014 World Indoor Championships Shot put women podium Sopot 2014.jpg
Adams atop the podium at the 2014 World Indoor Championships
YearCompetitionVenuePositionNotes
2001 World Youth Championships Debrecen, Hungary1st 16.87 m
2002 World Junior Championships Kingston, Jamaica 1st 17.73 m
Commonwealth Games Manchester, United Kingdom2nd 17.45 m
World Cup Madrid, Spain6th 18.40 m
2003 World Championships Paris, France5th 18.65 m
2004 Olympic Games Athens, Greece7th 18.56 m
2005 World Championships Helsinki, Finland2nd 19.62 m
2006 Commonwealth Games Melbourne, Australia1st 19.66 m GR
World Cup Athens, Greece1st 19.87 m
2007 World Championships Osaka, Japan1st 20.54 m
2008 World Indoor Championships Valencia, Spain1st 20.19 m
Olympic Games Beijing, China1st 20.56 m
2009 World Championships Berlin, Germany1st 20.44 m
2010 World Indoor Championships Doha, Qatar1st 20.49 m
Commonwealth Games New Delhi, India1st 20.47 m GR
Continental Cup Split, Croatia 1st 20.86 m
2011 World Championships Daegu, South Korea1st 21.24 m CR
2012 World Indoor Championships Istanbul, Turkey1st 20.54 m
Olympic Games London, United Kingdom1st 20.70 m
2013 World Championships Moscow, Russia1st 20.88 m
2014 World Indoor Championships Sopot, Poland1st 20.67 m CR
Commonwealth Games Glasgow, United Kingdom1st 19.88 m
2016 World Indoor Championships Portland, United States3rd 19.25 m
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil2nd 20.42 m
2018 Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia2nd 18.70 m
2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan3rd 19.62 m
Revised positions

National titles

Circuit wins

Adams at the Bislett Games in 2011 2011-06-09 Valerie Adams.jpg
Adams at the Bislett Games in 2011

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

The Women's Shot Put event at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on August 12 and August 13. The event was won by Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus but when samples taken from her during those games were retested in 2013, they revealed she had been doping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadzeya Astapchuk</span> Belarusian shot putter

Nadzeya Astapchuk is a Belarusian shot putter. She briefly was designated the Olympic Champion in 2012, but was subsequently stripped of the title for failing a drug test and the gold medal was awarded to New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams. She was World Champion in 2005, but in March 2013, the IAAF reported that her drug test sample from that event had been retested and found to be positive.

The women's shot put at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens was held on 18 August 2004 at the Ancient Olympia Stadium. It was originally planned to hold the discus throw at this venue, but it was discovered that the field was not large enough to accommodate the range of modern discus throwers, and would have posed a danger to spectators. As such, it was decided instead to hold the shot put at the site, despite the fact that the shot put was not contested at the Ancient Olympic Games. There were 38 competitors from 28 nations. After a series of doping-related disqualifications, the event was won by Koji Murofushi of Japan, the nation's first medal in the event. All distances are given in metres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dani Stevens</span> Australian discus thrower

Dani Stevens is a retired Australian discus thrower who in 2009 became the youngest ever female world champion in the event. She is the current national and Oceanian record holder. Stevens qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and threw 58.77m in the Women's dicus throw. This was not a sufficient distance to qualify her for the final.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gong Lijiao</span> Chinese Olympic shot putter

Gong Lijiao is a Chinese Olympic shot putter and the 2020 Olympic champion in that event. A three-time Olympic medalist, she holds a record eight medals at the World Athletics Championships, including two World titles.

The women's shot put event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 16 August at the Beijing Olympic Stadium. The qualifying standards were 18.35 m and 17.20 m.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Carter (athlete)</span> American shot putter

Michelle Denee Carter is an American shot putter. She is the former American record holder in the event with a distance of 20.63 m set at the 2016 Olympic Games. She was inducted into the Texas Track and Field Hall of Fame in 2018.

The women's shot put at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Olympic Stadium on August 16. Having set a world-leading and Oceanian record of 20.69 m in May, Valerie Vili was a strong favourite and defending champion. The seven best marks of the season all belonged to Vili, and only Anna Avdeyeva and Natallia Mikhnevich had thrown further than twenty metres that season. Former world champion Nadezhda Ostapchuk, Olympic medallist Nadine Kleinert and Gong Lijiao were other athletes who had a chance of reaching the podium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirsten Hellier</span> New Zealand javelin thrower

Kirsten Louise Hellier is a former javelin thrower, who represented New Zealand at the Commonwealth and the Olympic Games. She set her personal best in 1994 with the old javelin type. Hellier was the coach of World Champion shot putter Valerie Adams from 1998 until 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 European Cup Winter Throwing</span> International athletics championship event

The 2010 European Cup Winter Throwing was held on 20 and 21 March 2010 at the Stade Fernand Fournier in Arles, France. It was the tenth edition of the athletics competition for throwing events and it was organised by the European Athletics Association and the Fédération française d'athlétisme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belarus at the 2012 Summer Olympics</span> Sporting event delegation

Belarus competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's fifth appearance at the Summer Olympics in the post-Soviet era. The Belarus Olympic Committee sent a total of 166 athletes to the Games, 90 men and 76 women, to compete in 20 sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Ratcliffe</span> New Zealand hammer thrower

Julia Ratcliffe is a retired New Zealand track and field athlete who specialised in the hammer throw. She won the gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, having won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's shot put</span>

The women's shot put competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom was held at the Olympic Stadium on 6 August.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics</span> Sporting event delegation

New Zealand competed at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics from August 27 to September 4 in Daegu, South Korea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2011 World Championships in Athletics – Women's shot put</span>

The Women's shot put event at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on August 28 and 29.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Walsh (shot putter)</span> New Zealand shot putter

Tomas Walsh is a New Zealand athlete who competes mainly in the shot put. He is the current national record holder both outdoors and indoors for the event. His personal best of 22.90 m, set in Doha, 5 October 2019, is also the Oceanian record and makes him the sixth best shot putter in history.

The women's shot put competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 12 August. Each athlete receives three throws in the qualifying round. All who achieve the qualifying distance progress to the final. If less than twelve athletes achieve this mark, then the twelve furthest throwing athletes reach the final. Each finalist is allowed three throws in last round, with the top eight athletes after that point being given three further attempts.

Bertrand Vili is a French former track and field athlete who competed in the discus throw. He represented France at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics and was a silver medallist at the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie. He was a double shot put/discus gold medallist at the 2001 South Pacific Mini Games and also won javelin throw silver. He won the gold medal in the discus at the 2007 Pacific Games in a games record of 58.31 m. He successfully defended that title four years later at the 2011 Pacific Games, held in his native New Caledonia. He has a personal best of 63.66 m and is the New Caledonian national record holder.

Lisa Adams is a New Zealand Paralympic F37 shot putter and F38 discus thrower. Adams competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, and won a gold medal in Women's shot put F37, setting 4 Paralympics records in the process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Zealand at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics</span> Sporting event delegation

New Zealand competed at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics held in Helsinki, Finland. They won one medal, a silver, which was won by Valerie Vili in the shot put. Vili originally won the bronze medal, but was upgraded to silver after original gold medallist Nadzeya Ostapchuk subsequently failed a drug test. They placed 26th on the medal table.

References

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  6. She was the third after Jana Pittman (2003) and Yelena Isinbayeva (2005). Veronica Campbell completed the set the day after Adams.
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  18. 14th IAAF World Championships
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Awards
Preceded by New Zealand's Sportswoman of the Year
2006–2012
Succeeded by
Preceded by Halberg Awards – Supreme Award
2007–2009
Succeeded by
Preceded by Women's Track & Field Athlete of the Year
2012–2013
Succeeded by
Preceded by IAAF World Athlete of the Year
2014
Succeeded by
Preceded by Lonsdale Cup
2006–2007
2011
2013–2014
Succeeded by