Athletics: Is this the final leg of a glorious ride with an all-time legend?

Dame Valerie Adams at the AUT Millennium athletics track in Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Are we about to witness the last major shot putting performance by Dame Valerie Adams?

Only Adams will know if these Commonwealth Games are her final campaign, after she and husband Gabriel celebrated the birth of Kimoana, their first child, in October.

Priorities have changed for the most dominant female shot putter of any era. The 33-year-old could be ready to set her horizons to other challenges.

Chances are an exit strategy will be given serious thought. Time will be required to mull her options, so don't expect a decision after this meet. A Richie McCaw-like departure seems more likely, once the spotlight has come off her compatriots' feats on the Gold Coast.

Adams first represented New Zealand at a Commonwealth Games as a 17-year-old in Manchester 2002, where she secured silver. A hat-trick of victories followed in Melbourne, Delhi and Glasgow.

Only fellow thrower Val Young (1958, 1962 and 1966), shooter Stephen Petterson (1990, 1994 and 1998) and rugby sevens player Amasio Valence (1998, 2002 and 2006) have secured gold medals at three separate Games.

The tantalising prospect lies ahead that Adams could secure a record fourth.

But this will be one of the biggest challenges of her storied run. Adams had a caesarean section, and only started full training in January.

If pedigree is a gauge, she should win a fifth medal in as many Games, but stern competition awaits.

The best Commonwealth thrower this year is Jamaica's Danniel Thomas-Dodd with a 19.22m put at the world indoor championships in Birmingham on March 2.

The best heave outdoors is 18.60m from Trinidad and Tobago's Cleopatra Borel in Santiago on February 7.

Apart from an injury-plagued and rehabilitation-heavy 2015, the last year Adams failed to pass either of those marks was 2003.

Yet her best mark this season is 18.48m, set in Auckland on March 25.

As any parent knows, this will be a different proposition now a daughter vies for her attention. "I didn't know the job description that came with it, but bloody hell it's hard," Adams told the Herald in February.

"I love every moment, but it makes training specific. I get in and get the job done because you know somebody else is waiting for you, which is more important than anything else that's going on."

Nevertheless, Adams is assured by her preparation. "Competing at the Commonwealth Games was always in the back of my mind, but it was a gamble. I didn't know how I would be with the baby, how my body was going to be, or how I would sleep."

The sacrifice has not been hers alone. Noma Price might not win a gold medal, but she deserves one.

Adams' mother-in-law took a term's leave from her job as a teacher aide at Sutton Park School in Mangere East to help look after her grand-daughter during work days.

"I couldn't have done it without Mum," Adams said.