Valerie Adams

Dame

Valerie Adams

DNZM

Adams after her victory at the 2009 World Championships
Personal information
Birth name	Valerie Kasanita Adams
Born	(1984-10-06) 6 October 1984 (age 39) Rotorua, New Zealand
Height	193 cm (6 ft 4 in)[1]
Weight	120 kg (265 lb) (2012)
Sport
Country	New 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)
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 2 1 1 World Championships 4 1 0 World Indoor Championships 4 0 1 Commonwealth Games 3 2 0 Continental Cup 2 0 0 Total 15 4 2 Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Shot put 2012 London Shot put 2016 Rio de Janeiro Shot put 2020 Tokyo Shot put World Championships 2007 Osaka Shot put 2009 Berlin Shot put 2011 Daegu Shot put 2013 Moscow Shot put 2005 Helsinki Shot put World Indoor Championships 2008 Valencia Shot put 2010 Doha Shot put 2012 Istanbul Shot put 2014 Sopot Shot put 2016 Portland Shot put Commonwealth Games 2006 Melbourne Shot put 2010 Delhi Shot put 2014 Glasgow Shot put 2002 Manchester Shot put 2018 Gold Coast Shot put World Cup / Continental Cup 2006 Athens Shot put 2010 Split Shot put World Junior Championships 2002 Kingston Shot put World Youth Championships 2001 Debrecen Shot put

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.

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.