Adams coy on retirement, stays focused on Olympics
Dame Valerie Adams calls it the ‘‘million dollar question’’. Is 2021 the final chapter of her remarkable career?
The 36-year-old shot put ace can’t answer that right now, not when she’s laser-focused on her fifth Olympics campaign, and is making big sacrifices ahead of the Tokyo games later this year.
Adams made a coaching switch last year, moving from Auckland to Christchurch to work under Dale Stevenson, having been coached by
Athletics NZ high performance director Scott Goodman since 2016.
The double Olympic champion spends three out of four weeks in the Garden City, while husband Gabriel Price visits with one of their two children – daughter Kimoana, 3, and son Kepaleli, 1, – every second weekend.
‘‘We committed to that from the word go. I’ve got a one-year-old and a three-year-old, handful. My son also has type 1 diabetes, that’s another spanner in the works,’’ Adams said. ‘‘But, again, we’ve got a great support network around us, and we make it work.’’
Despite the challenges, Adams, who will compete in the International Track Meet at Nga¯ Puna Wai in Christchurch today, said the move had injected ‘‘excitement’’ into her life and glittering career.
Stevenson also coaches 2017 world champion Tom Walsh, whom she enjoys a brother-sister type relationship with.
‘‘It’s a very short time for me and I want to make it count,’’ Adams said. ‘‘I didn’t want to get to the end of the year and look back and go ‘crap I should’ve, would’ve, could’ve, but I didn’t.’ And that’s why the big decision was made for me to come down to Christchurch.
‘‘Shout out to my husband and mother-in-law for holding it down at home with my kids – it’s hard being away from them but this is not forever, and hopefully they’ll understand why mummy is here doing this.’’
Stevenson, described by Adams as ‘‘pedantic’’, has been testing the four-times world champion in ways she didn’t experience under Goodman and Jean-Pierre Egger.
Strength had never been a problem for Adams, but being fast and dynamic was a different story, she said.
‘‘He’s putting me in positions and places that I haven’t been to before, challenging me physically, which is pretty intense.
‘‘I’ve had two children and, obviously, physically it does challenge your body. Having one kid is difficult, having two kids is very hard, and at my age it’s difficult.
‘‘But one thing that I do have up my sleeve is that my pain threshold is quite high and I push myself to extreme limits. A lot of mothers who may have two kids, or find out how old my kids are et cetera, and what I have done so far, are quite astounded by what I’m capable of doing.’’
Adams won the Potts Classic in Hastings with a 18.34m put last month, and has many chances to build in the coming months, including at the national track and field championships in Hastings next month.
At a time speculation regarding the Tokyo Olympics is rife, she admits it can be a mental drag wondering if the event, already postponed a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will even go ahead.
However, organisers remain adamant it will proceed from July 23.
‘‘It’s a very uncertain time for a lot of athletes, not only is this their career, it’s their life, it’s their livelihood, it’s a lot of things. But for me, we dealt with this last year, I’m kind of at the tail end of my career, I’ve been to four Olympics already, my mental game is pretty strong. This is a bit of a drag, yes, I ain’t going to lie, but I’ve committed and I’m 100 per cent in it for the long haul,’’ Adams said.
‘‘It’s just in my nature, I’m one of those people. I’m focused on the road to Tokyo, I’ve had my children, I’ve recovered from that ... that’s where I’m at.’’
And that $1 million question? ‘‘I don’t know.
‘‘Let’s just try and get through this, our season first because nobody knows. You can’t tell me what’s going to happen in July. So I can’t even tell you what’s going to happen in July.
‘‘Wait and see.’’