Olympics: Valerie Adams rises again

A win in London would place Valerie Adams in the pantheon of New Zealand Olympic legends.

Like a mythical creature, Valerie Adams came down from her lair in the Swiss Alps, hurled the shot further than she had all year, then disappeared again.

The next time she'll resurface is at the Olympic Stadium in London where, in the full glare of the world's media, she will look to defend her title won so impressively in Beijing four years ago.

She will be favourite, even accounting for the astonishing, slightly discomforting, form of her major rival, Belarussian Nadzeya Ostapchuk. Adams is, literally and otherwise, a giant of her sport, and a second gold medal would be an appropriate reflection of her standing.

It would also go a long way to smoothing over what has been a tumultuous four years between Games. The ease with which Valerie Adams scoops up titles have not been reflected in her life away from the infield.

Adams won the Olympics in 2008 with a throw of 20.56m under her married name of Vili. Her six-year marriage to New Caledonian discus thrower Bertrand ended in 2010. That revelation barely caused a ripple, however, compared to the shock announcement months earlier that she was ending her coach-pupil relationship with Kirsten Hellier after 11 years.

Hellier had been more than a coach to Adams - she was a mentor, a friend and a visible force-field that kept Adams out of reach to all but those that could help her in her quest to become the world's greatest shot putter. Hellier was also a strong female presence in the athlete's life following the death of Adams' mother, Lilika Ngauamo, when she was just 15.

"She's been there since I was 14 years old. That's a long time. We've grown, I've grown, we've succeeded in so many things," Adams said at the time. "We've had great experiences together and I'll never forget that and I thank her so much for a wonderful 11 years she's given me in my career."

The decision was made, according to those involved, for one reason: to get Adams throwing further, to place speed and technical expertise alongside her raw power. The Academy of Sport became more involved, particularly strength and conditioning expert Matt Kritz and power coach Mike McGuigan. Adams turned to charismatic Frenchman Didier Poppe to be her coach.

His stated aim was to turn a truck into a Ferrari. He barely had time to look under the hood.

Within eight months the two had separated over what a rock star would term "creative differences". It just didn't work. Adams was getting frustrated and, worse, beaten.

Ostapchuk emerged from a lean spell to dominate 2010. The only time Adams bettered her was after spending time in the company of Swiss coach Jean-Pierre Egger, the former coach of three-time world champion Werner Gunthor.

A swift decision was made - Poppe became the second coach to be bladed in a year.

Since then, things have looked up. Adams won the world champs and celebrated by showing the world a profile page of Egger. It was as much an excision of her recent past as it was a sign of affection for the burly Swiss.

Since then the only black cloud has been the re-emergence of Ostapchuk. An athlete renowned for her ability to start the season hot, particularly within the borders of Belarus, she has nevertheless surpassed herself this time, throwing a scarcely believable 21.39m at a recent meeting at Grodno.

The message from the Adams camp, delivered through manager Nick Cowan, is bring it on (Adams triumphed the last time they met in a major meeting, winning the world indoor title in Istanbul this year).

Since then Adams emerged from her training camp to throw 21.11 at a meeting in Lucerne. It is hoped that, distance wise, it was a mere clearing of the throat. Adams' record of three outdoor world championships and an Olympic title already mark herself down as a great. Should she go back-to-back in London, she will join the likes of Peter Snell, Mark Todd, Ian Ferguson and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell in legendary status. She is not the type to let anything get in the way of those goals, including the media.

More than once she has said, slightly sneeringly it must be said, that she will not be doing any press calls in the lead-up to these Games so that she won't get "asked the same damn questions".

It's difficult to understand her apparent contempt for the media, given the fact that A) athletics has to battle for every scrap of space it can get and B) the media has been almost slavish in its praise of Adams since she started making waves in her sport as a raw teenager. But if she needs to create a kind of siege mentality around herself to fuel motivation, then all power to her.

It might look a relatively simple sport - she or he who throws furthest wins - but there are some highly technical computations that determine the distance of a shot that traverse such factors as height of release, angle of trajectory, velocity and so on. For that you need a scientific calculator, but England's former Commonwealth champion turned budgie breeder Geoff Capes said all you need are the five S's: strength, speed, stamina, suppleness and skill. Adams would add another 'S' to that list. As she is fond of saying, all she needs to do is go out there and "Smack" the crap out of it.