1. Adams suffered the indignity of "losing" to Belarusian drug cheat Nadzheya Ostapchuk at the London Olympics. She had no option but to accept silver on the dais, before later receiving her gold at a ceremony in Auckland. Ostapchuk's four-year ban ends on Monday.
2. As a 19-year-old at her maiden Games in Athens she missed the top eight and the opportunity for three more throws. Four of those ahead of her have since received doping bans. Adams has consistently been burdened by this toxic environment as she charts a course to become the country's first gold medal winner at three consecutive Olympics.
3. To compound matters, Adams was on the receiving end of bureaucratic bungling by NZ administrators in 2012 which failed to see her entered for competition. Fortunately that appears to be resolved at Rio.
4. The 31-year-old is one of two female shot putters who have won back-to-back Olympic titles. The other was Soviet Tamara Press in 1960 and 1964. Yet Adams, with access to the wonders of modern sports science, remains 23rd on the all-time distance list. Her 21.24m best was set at the 2011 world championships in South Korea. The world record of 22.63m, set by Soviet Natalya Lisovskaya at Moscow in June 1987, remains 1.39m beyond her reach.
Adams has been candid in support of the IAAF's decision - unlike the International Olympic Committee - to place a ban on Russian athletes after evidence of a systemic doping programme was revealed.
"If you wring the chicken by the neck, the chicks underneath will not do that," she said at the time. Adams' march towards gold still looks promising, although her 73-year-old coach Jean-Pierre Egger will be absent due to knee surgery after a fall.
Adams is the only woman to win four consecutive shot put world championships, set a record 56 straight victories at international-ranked meets between August 2010 and July 2015, and became the first female thrower to be awarded the world governing body's Athlete of the Year title.
Adams even shattered the gender divide in Tonga when appointed as the first woman matapule or chief from her village Houma.
She is one of four athletes in the field to throw over 20m this year with a personal best of 20.19m last month. The others are China's Lijiao Gong (20.43m in May), defending world champion Christina Schwanitz of Germany (20.17m last month) and American Michelle Carter (20.21m in March to become world indoor champion).
"It is an even playing field and probably one of the tightest for Olympic year," Adams told the Herald last month.
"The level is not as high as previous Games, which is exciting, because I'm breathing down their necks. That's good for my confidence."
