Valerie Adams (© Getty Images)
New Zealand’s shot put superstar Dame Valerie Adams has been named as the World Athletics ambassador for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26, which will be held from 20-22 March.
A legend of the throws, Adams won two Olympic shot put titles and eight world crowns – four of those at the World Indoor Championships – during a highly successful career that spanned more than two decades.
The last of her world indoor title wins came in Sopot in 2014 and the 41-year-old is now relishing the chance to return to Poland, this time as the event’s ambassador.
“I am super pumped to be back in Poland where I won my 2014 world indoor title, to be among the crowd and to experience the competition from a spectator’s point of view,” said Adams, who was also named World Athlete of the Year in 2014.
“Being an ambassador for this wonderful event is very humbling. I am also very excited to be able to engage with the athletes and with the crowd, to experience a championships like no other.”
Adams made her World Indoor Championships debut as a 19-year-old at the 2004 edition in Budapest. Her next appearance came in Valencia in 2008, when she won the first of her four gold medals and completed the world title set – adding the honour to her world U18, world U20 and world senior outdoor wins.
Her other World Indoor Championships victories came in Doha in 2010 and Istanbul in 2012, and she also claimed bronze in Portland in 2016. She matched that world gold medal tally outdoors, winning in Osaka in 2007, Berlin in 2009, Daegu in 2011 and Moscow in 2013 to become the first woman to claim four consecutive titles in any individual event at the World Championships.
Adams created history at the Olympic Games, too. She achieved two consecutive Olympic title wins in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, then secured silver in Rio in 2016 and bronze in Tokyo in 2021 to become the first woman to win four Olympic medals in a single field event.
“The Sopot World Indoor Championships was very memorable for me,” said Adams. “As soon as the shot left my hand on the fifth-round throw, I knew it was big and I knew it was strong. I felt so powerful coming off the back of the circle and the roar at the end, you knew that it was going to be dominating, and that’s exactly what it was – 20.67m, a world lead, and it ended up taking the world indoor title.
“From Sopot, one of my fondest memories was actually Tom Walsh winning a bronze medal. All of a sudden, we’ve got two medallists all the way from New Zealand.”
As well as her magnificent medal success, Adams remains the Oceanian shot put record-holder thanks to her 21.24m outdoor and 20.98m indoor performances.
Away from the throwing circle, Adams remains hugely involved in athletics. In 2019, when she was World Athletics Athletes' Commission Deputy Chair, she and Renaud Lavillenie became the first active athletes to join the World Athletics Council as full voting members. She has been Chair of the World Athletics Athletes' Commission since 2023.
World Athletics
