Adams keen to be voice of experience
Dame Valerie Adams has more than earned a break from the world of high performance sport, after two decades competing – and winning – on its highest stages.
But she’s decided the best time to add her voice to the governance of the high performance system in New Zealand is while her experience of it as a shot put athlete is still fresh in her mind.
Six months to the day since Adams confirmed her retirement, at High Performance Sport NZ’S headquarters on Auck- land’s North Shore, she was back there speaking about her appointment to the organisation’s board of directors.
She was joined by Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua, former Black Sox player and coach Don Tricker and Paralympic medallist Duane Kale in being appointed to the HPSNZ board, which is chaired by Bill Moran.
A number of aspects of New Zealand’s high performance system have come in for criticism in recent years, with reviews taking place across several sports into failures around administration, governance and athlete welfare.
Most recently, in May, there was the conclusion of one into Cycling NZ and HPSNZ, initiated following the suspected suicide of Olympic cyclist Olivia Podmore last August.
The resulting 104-page report, co-authored by lawyer Mike Heron and academic Sarah Leberman, detailed a culture of ‘‘medals before process’’ and outlined the need to address the ‘‘chilling’’ power imbalance between athletes and sports organisations.
Overseeing the required changes is set to be a key function of the HPSNZ board in the coming months and years and Adams is set to provide a unique perspective, as someone who has only just finished competing herself.
‘‘I’ve just come out of the system, so let me go back into the system,’’ she said yesterday. ‘‘Obviously coming through it – I see things, [athletes] speak to me, I speak to them. It was the perfect time for me because obviously it’s still fresh.
‘‘If I came back in three years’ time, the system would have completely changed.
‘‘If I waited three years, I don’t think I would’ve probably had the same passion. Possibly things in my life would have changed, I could have gone somewhere else.’’
Adams has served as one of two athlete representatives on the World Athletics Council since 2019 and has gained confidence in her ability to speak up when necessary, while also growing her appreciation for the importance of being involved.
‘‘I’m confident that I have a voice,’’ she said. ‘‘I’m confident that I don’t have any qualms about speaking up.
‘‘You can be at a table, but not speak, so it’s quite important to know and have confidence that the athletes’ voice will be heard at the table and that’s what I can bring and I’m hoping my presence will be able to bring more voices from athletes behind me.
‘‘That’s the only way to make change – to be there. I could be at the table and not say jack s..., right? I can just sit there and be mute, be like, hey, this is great, wonderful, but I don’t see myself doing that.’’
Erling Haaland is taking English football by storm.
Back-to-back hat-tricks. Nine goals in five games. No player has ever made as good a start to the Premier League as the towering Norway striker.
Haaland’s latest three-goal haul came in the first half of City’s 6-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest yesterday, three days after achieving the same feat in the second half against Crystal Palace.
City were banking on Haaland being the heir to long-time striker Sergio Aguero and it’s already looking as if that is the case.
Aguero previously held the record for most goals in a player’s first five Premier League appearances, with eight along with former Coventry striker Mick Quinn (from the early 1990s). Haaland has bettered that, and surely more scoring records will fall if he continues like this.
For example, can he become the first player to score 40 goals in a single top-flight campaign in England since Tottenham’s Jimmy Greaves in 1960-61?
‘‘What Haaland wants is to win