Adams pondered a final shot
In the end the competitive fire finally dimmed and it just felt right.
So at 37, in the wake of her fifth Olympic Games, with her two children and husband waiting at home, Dame Valerie Adams has packed away the shot put and called time on one of the great careers in New Zealand sport.
But even then, with all she had achieved – four Olympic medals, two of them gold, eight world titles, five Commonwealth Games medals and a winning streak in her discipline that spanned nine years and 107 events – she very nearly came back.
Nearly. But not quite.
Adams said at her retirement announcement in Auckland yesterday that she pondered deeply after her fifth Olympics in Tokyo about coming back. She had even resumed training just in case.
‘‘I was contemplating Birmingham [Commonwealth Games] ... but we were in a bubble in Tokyo, and coming home into MIQ and then lockdown, which really took a toll on me physically and mentally, and then having to jump back into home life, adapting to what was already happening after being away for such a long time, was pretty hard,’’ she said.
‘‘I thought about it long and hard, took some time off, started back training, and as the weeks went on it got more and more stuck in my head what I actually wanted to do. You’ve got to take the time to process these things, and I think I’ve earned that time.’’
So, why was it so hard for someone who has been competing internationally for over 20 years, who has won every accolade and medal she could have dreamed of, to walk away from it all?
‘‘It speaks to how much this means to me,’’ she said. ‘‘This is all I know. This is my life. This is my second home – the track, the circle, the gym – so it’s difficult for anyone going from one profession to another, and it’s difficult because I’ve grown up in this. I was 14 when I picked up my first shot.’’
Difficult. And challenging. Adams was not hiding from that as she contemplated moving to a new stage of her life, where family (children Kimoana, 4, Kepaleli, 2, and husband Gabriel Price), where community work, where coaching, where promotional duties would now take precedence.
‘‘All of this is very scary because all of a sudden I’ve got to find out where do I belong now, how do I fit into a normal life,’’ said Adams who choked back tears as she announced her retirement.
‘‘This is the first part of sorting out the rest of my life. It’s very daunting and it’s been a process, but I’m happy, I’m very free in my heart, and it’s almost like a weight off my shoulders a little bit.’’
Adams had spoken, as she took time to gather her emotions, about knowing in her heart it was time to walk away, that her family called for her but her body also sent its own message, and that she was at ‘‘peace’’ with the decision and ready to tackle those upcoming challenges. She called it ‘‘the end of an era’’, and was not underplaying her achievements one iota.
This is a woman who competed internationally for the first time in 1999 (the year her closest Kiwi rival, Maddison-lee Wesche, was born), won her first world youth title in 2001, her first world under20 crown in 2002, made her first Olympic appearance in 2004 and then launched herself as the singular most dominant athlete her discipline had seen.
What followed was a litany of success: Olympic golds in 2008 and 2012, a dramatic silver in 2016 and that emotional bronze in Tokyo last year when, as a mother of two, she had what she considered her greatest achievement; four straight world outdoors titles from 2007-13; four straight indoors crowns from 2008-14; and five straight Commonwealth Games medals.
Adams tabbed her first Olympic gold in Beijing and third world title in Daegu (where she threw her PB of 21.24m) as career highlights because they were triumphs that went according to plan. Tokyo, she added, was a success of a different sort.
‘‘The most incredible feeling for me was competing as a mum. It shows a female athlete can have children, and can still come back and be the best in your sport. We need more and more of those stories to be told.
‘‘It really was a magical moment for me. It felt more amazing than winning a gold medal because of the work it took to get there, and how difficult it was to be away.’’
‘‘This is all I know. This is my life. This is my second home.’’ Dame Valerie Adams on her athletics career