Athletics: Val giving it her best shot

For Valerie Adams, 2011 can already go down as the strangest year of her career.

She has committed to a training regime that sees the family-oriented athlete living in a tiny Swiss village, isolated from friends and relatives. Her spartan accommodation has no cooking facilities, so the reigning Olympic champion has taken to boiling eggs in a kettle. She has been adopted by a local Kiwi family and become their "housesitter", while she has also been scouted by the Swiss bobsleigh team.

"It's been interesting - I guess you could say that," laughs Adams, of her Swiss experience. "This is the best place for me to be and these are the best people for me to be training with. There are no two ways around it - it is good for my career and that is why I am here."

Athletes always like to appear positive, but Adams seems to be in a genuinely good space. She sounds happy, relaxed and confident and her performances have borne this out - prior to this morning's Diamond League meet in London, she has beaten arch-rival Nadzeya Astapchuk 3-0 this year, including a season best throw of 20.78 in Paris.

She has been based in Europe since April under the guidance of new coach Jean-Pierre Egger and assistant Werner Gunthor. Adams lives at the Swiss Federal Sports Academy, in the tiny village of Macolin (population 2000). Athletes live in basic quarters more akin to a student hostel - "bed, TV, bathroom, toilet, chair, desk" as Adams describes it - though she has tried to make her place more homely. She bought a fridge, now well stocked, though it is doubtful if it fits into the strict regulations.

"The cleaners have seen it and they haven't confiscated it so I am safe for now. It is too late now - but anyway I can just claim it is an appliance - like a hairdryer."

Communal mealtimes are at strictly set times - breakfast is between 7am and 8am, no earlier, no later - but Adams now has her own supply system.

"It means I can improvise," says Adams, "especially when I have a double training, I just have a munch in my room. With a bit of Kiwi ingenuity, I have adapted; I have a stash of eggs, yoghurt, nuts and cereal in my room."

The eggs are boiled in a kettle, surely a bit trickier than it sounds.

For a taste of home, Adams pops in to see a local family she has befriended, a Queenstown woman who has married a local.

"One Sunday I shot down there - they invited me for lunch - it was perfect with roast chicken, kumara, potatoes, vegetables - and I haven't left since," laughs Adams. "I've been there for meals, and sometimes I just turn up and play with the kids when I miss all my relatives at home."

They have even given Adams a key to the house, and when they are away she plays housesitter, keeping an eye on the place while enjoying the chance to catch up on some "decent television", after the non-stop German fare in the Academy. She is also single for the first time in years and "loving it", though is quick to dismiss the thought of any local dates.

"There is no way that is happening - no way," she says. "My only romance is me and the shot put before the world championships. I've got no time, but also no interest. I've got a bigger picture here."

A few people questioned her plans to live away from Auckland, but Adams feels she is on a mission. She trains twice a day, six days a week with Egger and Gunthor. It has been a learning curve - for both parties (the coaches had never trained a female before) but the progress and results are encouraging.

"They have brought things into my training which I have never done before and as a result I'm doing things that I haven't been able to do before," says Adams. "I've progressed in the throwing as well as the gym."

Egger has her doing more plyometric work. Adams also says she is lifting more than ever - quite a claim when it is understood she already can outlift most All Blacks.

After a turbulent 2010, Adams seems to have the pop back in her put. She has steadily improved over the season, with a 20.54m at the New Zealand nationals in March, to marks of 20.78 (Paris) and 20.57 (Stockholm) last month. The peak will (hopefully) come later this month at the world championships in Daegu, South Korea, both in terms of performance and pressure.

"The Diamond League has been good this year, but world champs is a whole other level," says Adams. "The pressure is massive when you are defending world champion, but you have to take it as it comes. I have to focus on what I can control - which is to defend my title and nothing less will do."

One of the more memorable sights from the Beijing Olympics was the sheer intensity of Adams' performance, from the moment she cut such an imposing figure in the warm-up to her massive first throw in the final, which visibly deflated her rivals.

"You are there to psych them out," admits Adams. "I don't purposefully go out there to try and screw people over but it is part of the game. I play my game and it is part of the competition. They are probably trying to do the same to me."

Adams is the only track and field athlete staying full time at the Academy, but she has mixed and shared training tips with other members of the Swiss Olympic team, including skiing, bobsleigh and judo teams.

"I've already been scouted," she laughs. "When I retire, they told me I should come and do bobsleigh or judo - it's an option."

It seemed unlikely, but Adams has found contentment 20,000km from home in the knowledge she is doing all she can in pursuit of a second consecutive Olympic gold and a place in history.

"I'm in a stage of my life where I am a lot happier - so that makes things a lot easier," says Adams. "I'm happy where I am and the choices I have made. They have been the right choices. It's much harder when you try to make choices and nothing else is going well."