David Leggat: Adams sits at pinnacle of sporting achievement

Valerie Adams celebrates after winning gold in the women's shot put. Photo / Greg Bowker

Opinion

As Valerie Adams chalked up successive title No 54 in Hampden Park early on Thursday NZT, there was a sense of it all being a bit underwhelming.

This is no fault of the marvellous Adams. She can't be blamed for being head, neck and shoulders above her competitors, and for so long; or that it might be a lean time for the sport, other than her.

But once she threw the stone to 19.88m with her second effort that, effectively, was the contest.

In the end Adams won by 1.3m from her good mate, Cleo Borel of Trinidad and Tobago, who was responsible for Adams' natty hairdo that night.

And, of course, it raises the old water cooler conversation about New Zealand's finest athletes.

Yvette Corlett (nee Williams), New Zealand's first woman Olympic champion, will always have her supporters. She was the trailblazer, and she had enormous versatility on her side.

Peter Snell won three Olympic gold medals and bestrode his running era like a colossus. Watch the old film of him burning up the tracks of the early 1960s, all raw power. He had the ability to make other good quality runners look ordinary and was named New Zealand's athlete of the last century.

No quibble there, but even the legendary Snell did get beaten occasionally, which Adams hasn't done for almost five years.

Children born the day Adams was last beaten are now into their second year at primary school.

Adams equalled Val Young's Commonwealth record of three gold, and one silver shot put medal at Hampden Park.

Throw in two Olympic titles, four worlds and it's becoming a record which surely will take on an imperishable quality in the years to come.

The whole argument about being the best is completely subjective.

Widen out the topic beyond athletics and giants of their sports, such as Colin Meads and Richard Hadlee, will attract talk of their claims to superiority.

But it doesn't really matter. New Zealand has been blessed with many genuine champions, both sexes, across a range of sports. They should be savoured for their distinctive qualities.

It's a bit like a Halberg award vote. How to compare a rower with a swimmer, a runner, a sailor, and a cyclist. You can't, not really. So you go with your own values system, how much weight you attach to a performance, or series of performances.

It doesn't mean you're right, except in your own mind.

So why not just leave it at this: if Adams chose to walk away from her sport today, she will sit at the pinnacle of New Zealand sporting achievement. And yet she's got so much more to come.

Then let personal subjectivity take over.