Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres (69.7 ft) outdoors and 20.98 metres (68.8 ft) indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
Adams after her victory at the 2009 World Championships
Adams (right) in 2017, after her investiture as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the Governor-General, Dame Patsy Reddy
Adams celebrated her first world title in 2007
Adams competing at the 2011 World Championships
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the shot—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival (1896), and women's competition began in 1948.
Polish double Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski
Czechoslovak shot putter Plíhal at the 1957 East German Indoor Athletics Championships
Shot putter at the University of Nebraska, 1942, showing the circle and stop board
Czechoslovak shot putter Jiří Skobla showing the correct technique for keeping the shot near the neck