My Valerie Adams Report: By Teagan

Valerie Adams

Valerie Kasanita Adams is one of the best Shot Putters in the world. She is one of the best gold medal chances for New Zealand, and makes New Zealand proud.

Valerie Kasanita Adams was born October 6th 1984. She was born in Rotorua, New Zealand. Valerie is Tongan from her mother Lilika Ngauomo, and English from her dad Sydney Adams. Valerie has several brothers over 7ft tall. Her youngest brother Steven Adams is a basketball player in Massachusetts United States of America. Valerie Is very tall. She is 6ft 4, that is 1.96 metres, nearly 2 metres tall. Valerie supports God and belongs to Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ.

Valerie was shy at school. She went to Otatara Primary School. Her family couldn’t afford shoes for her massive feet. She was the tallest in her class and used to get teased and got called names at school. She was good at basketball and had strong forearms which was first recognised by her P.E. teacher at Mangere High School.

A sad part in Valerie’s life was when her mother Lilika Ngauamo died of cancer when Valerie was just 15 years old. Her mother inspired her to shot put and to work harder. Valerie later on got married to the a New Caledonian discus thrower Bertrand Vili in 2004. But unfortunately Valerie  and Bertrand separated in 2010.

She broke the record for shot put in bare feet in the junior championships.  In 2001 Valerie won gold at the World Youth championships in Hungary. In 2002 Valerie was first in the World Junior Track and Field Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, throwing a distance of 17.73m and then went on to win silver at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, with a throw of  17.45m.Valerie went to her first Olympics in Athens in 2004, just a month after having surgery.Valerie came ninth in the qualifying round, she missed out on the final. One of the finalists later failed a drugs test, which brought Valerie into eighth place. In 2008 Valerie won gold at the Beijing Olympics.

Valerie has had three coaches. Her first coach was Kirsten Hellier, who was a well known javelin thrower. They met in 1998 and were together for 11 years. Her second coach was Dide Poppe and fired him in 2010. She now lives in Switzerland with her third coach Jean Pierre Egger. Valerie has done very well under him.
Valerie Adams is one of New Zealand’s icons and will hopefully win us some medals at the London Olympics this year.