No obstacle too big for determined Adams

With the Rio Olympics fast approaching, Fairfax Media is counting down New Zealand’s top 20 medal prospects. Today, Marc Hinton assesses No 5, women’s shot putter Valerie Adams.

Valerie Adams has had to deal with many challenges on the rocky road to Rio, not the least of which has been her own mortality.

Where once the towering New Zealander was indomitable, intimidating and seemingly indestructible, now, at the age of 31, she is working through a testing time where her 1.93m frame has frequently struggled to keep pace with her ambition.

The double Olympic and fourtime world champion had shoulder and elbow surgery in 2014 and a knee procedure in 2015 and has had to come through long periods of rehab and recovery from both to regain the power and precision that saw her rattle off a record 56 consecutive victories in major meets from 2010 to 2014.

There was a day that the mere sight of Adams on the infield of a meet would send her rivals giddy at the knees. However, injuries, surgeries and resultant form struggles have removed the invincible tag and handed some much-needed hope to the elite crop of women’s shot put exponents.

But Adams is adamant that she will present in Rio in the right physical state to achieve the historic feat of consecutive gold medals at three Olympics. Her mindset is as positive as it could be as she puts the finishing touches on preparations at her Swiss training base alongside long-time coach Jean-pierre Egger.

‘‘I’m in really good shape right now, better than I have been in a couple of years,’’ she told Newshub from Switzerland. ‘‘[That’s why] it’s been so frustrating because my results are not showing the physical state I’m in. Nevertheless I’m confident that we’re able to nail this come the next couple of competitions ... to have the results that come with the form we’re in at the moment.

‘‘It just needs to come together and I have faith it will when it’s time . . . the bigger picture is Rio and making sure we’re set for Rio. My fight isn’t over and I haven’t given up. I accept this challenge wholeheartedly and JP and I are doing everything in our power to be there and be ready for anything that’s put in front of us.

‘‘Everybody wants to win, and I want to win it more than anybody else.’’

Adams is right to be confident and to back what she knows she’s capable of, and what she knows she’s been able to produce in training.

Though she hasn’t broken 20 metres since September of 2014, Adams’ 2016 performances give the distinct impression she’s building nicely. She threw 18.85m first up at in Waitakere in February and backed that up with 19.43m to win her 14th national title soon after in Dunedin. Since then she’s gone 19.25m for third at the world indoors, 19.52, 19.68 and 19.69m for a trio of victories in Europe, 19.63m for second at the Diamond League meet in Birmingham and 19.37m in her last outing for victory in Lucerne.

These are not the sort of numbers you expect from Adams, and clearly not the ones she expects from herself. Thus the frustration.

But if you cast around the rest of the world she’s actually not far off where she needs to be. American Michelle Carter threw 20.21m to win the world indoors back in March, but hasn’t been sighted at that sort of level since. China’s Gong Lijiao is the 2016 world leader with the 20.43m she managed in Halle in May, but American Tia Brooks (19.73m for victory in Birmingham) is the only other athlete to have thrown further than Adams this year.

The improvement needed is well within her reach, and she knows it.

There’s also a steely resolve that she will get it right when it matters, alongside a general contentedness that comes from having new husband Gabriel Price on hand in Switzerland to help add some ‘‘normality’’ to her routine.

Adams said earlier this year she’s not putting a number on what she needs to nail in Rio at what will almost certainly be her final Games. ‘‘The target is to throw whatever [it takes] to win the Olympics. I won in 2008 with 20.56, and won in 2012 with 20.70. Nobody targets a particular number, it’s all about what happens on the day. It’s about whoever brings their game on game day − that person is going to win the gold medal.

‘‘The big one is there . . . I’ve just got to keep putting it in the pot and stewing it, and make it nice and tender so when it comes out in Rio it’s going to be delicious.’’

It’s a mouth-watering analogy, and with all she’s achieved and all she’s capable of, no-one would deny Adams one more golden moment at Rio in August.