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The first time Dame Valerie Adams flew to Europe, she was a nervous 14-year-old, on her way to throw the shot at the 1998 world under-18 athletics championships in Poland.
When Adams heads to the Northern Hemisphere these days, it’s usually to take her place on the World Athletics Council, the organisation that rules the sport internationally.
Dame Valerie Adams is chair of the World Athletes’ Commission. Photo/Jason Oxenham
The bag of Big Uns chips she clutched as she boarded the plane in ‘98 has been replaced by a laptop so she can work, for example, on the presentation she gave to the 26-member council in Monaco in December.
It’s her second term on the council. She’s been there since 2019, when she was elected deputy chair, and then, last year, chair of the World Athletes’ Commission, the group that speaks directly for competitors, by her international track and field peers. Those positions entitled her to a place on the world council, where the other 24 seats are taken by people representing national associations.
England’s Coe, a double Olympic 1500 metres champion in 1980 and ‘84, was elected World Athletics’ president in 2015.
“I really respect Seb,” says Adams. “He’s a pretty cool person, and in the sport he’s made major changes, putting us in a better place than athletics used to be. There’s open discussion, where everyone has a fair chance of speaking up. I’ve seen him [in] action and he’s remarkable. It takes a special person to be able to handle everyone’s often very strong opinions.
Valerie Adams after winning gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Picture / Greg Bowker
“His goals and his vision have been realised by the team around him. Previously, as an athlete, you didn’t feel heard. You didn’t feel you were part of the discussion.
“Now the Athletes’ Commission has two voting seats on the council. That was something never even looked at before Seb became the president.
“He’s travelled all over the world to see what’s actually happening on the ground, which I think is the only way to really know what’s going on. As just one example, he was in Fiji last year for the Oceania Congress.
“There was a goal to have a 50-50 split between men and women on the council by 2027. Last year we reached that, which was pretty impressive because for a long time it was a sport run by males.
“Half of my career was under the old regime, and the second half was under this one. So I’ve had a taste of both worlds, and I definitely prefer this one.”
The progressive Coe era has followed some of the darkest times in athletics administration.
Coe took over as World Athletics’ president from Lamine Diack, from Senegal, who died in disgrace in 2021. Diack was then on bail, facing two years in gaol in France. He was found guilty in 2020 by a Paris criminal court of soliciting Russian bribes totalling €3.45 million ($5.9 million) to conceal test results, so athletes suspected of doping could continue competing at major events, including the 2012 London Olympic Games.
It was at those games that Adams was initially denied a gold medal in the shot by Nadzeya Ostapchuk from Belarus before tests revealed Ostapchuk as a drugs cheat.
As a clean athlete herself, Adams has always been an outspoken opponent of drug use.
Now she gets information at the highest level from those in charge of the sport, she believes there has never been a more rigorous approach to catching drug users.
Stepping from the shot put circle to the boardroom was nerve-wracking for Adams.
“The people I was dealing with were old hands, and I had doubts about my abilities. I’m a doer, but you have to be able to phrase it in a way that works for these officials.
“This wasn’t like making a speech about what you do, you have to be over everything, from sprinters to walkers to marathon runners. But now, having done it a few times. I’m a lot more at ease.
“I’m passionate about this. About being there to fight for the rights and wants of the athletes. If anything comes my way that I don’t have the answer to, I’ll do everything I can to hunt it down, to ask the hard questions when they’re needed to work out a solution. Sometimes not everybody will be happy, but you learn that if you can get the majority happy, that’s good.”
There are still some sleepless nights, but not from anxiety. “Meetings on Zoom are usually between one and four o’clock in the morning. As the commission chair, I’ve taken more on, but I also know that a good leader can delegate too. I’ve got a great vice-president, Matt Hughes, who is the Canadian 3000 metres steeplechase record holder.
“Within the commission itself, we can all have really honest, open conversations. Face-to-face beats Zoom any day. The two days we had in a room, face to face in Monaco last month was brilliant. To see someone’s genuine concern in person brings home how different what’s happening in America is from what’s happening in Kenya, from what’s happening in Argentina.
“The commission is not political at all. We just want to make a difference, to be the voice of the athlete. We cover 90 per cent of the range of events, and we seek opinions for the areas we weren’t personally involved in as athletes.”
Closer to home Adams continues to coach her sister, Lisa, who won a gold medal in the shot at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, and Oceania shot champion, Tonga’s Ata Maama Tu’utafaiva.
She’s also a board member of High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ).
When she was initially approached in 2022 by HPSNZ chief executive Raelene Castle, Adams was hesitant.
“Then I thought, ‘if you want to make change you have to be at the table, to be part of it.’ It’s taken me a while to get to grips with multiple sports. The change from working on the ground as a competitor to sitting on the other side, listening to what the sports plan to do, and what funding they need, is an eye opener.
“There’s a lot of time, and background work that goes into the decisions. It’s never something that’s decided lightly.”
Adams has nothing but praise for Castle. “She’s a strong wāhine, dynamic, knows what’s she doing, and she’s very approachable. That makes a big difference for athletes.”
Castle makes it clear her hopes of what Adams would bring to the table have been fully realised. Adams, she says, “has deep lived experience in all of the ways that help in an athlete’s pathway”.
“She’s non-traditional. She’s a woman from a Pasifika background. She’s had some personal and professional challenges. She’s had babies, and come back to compete, and women’s health is an important issue.
“She knows what winning looks like. She’s been in the hurt locker and won, so she knows how to balance things with really good welfare. So she really ticks every box.”
Phil Gifford has twice been judged New Zealand sportswriter of the year, has won nine New Zealand and two Australasian radio awards, and been judged New Zealand Sports Columnist of the year three times. In 2010 he was honoured with the SPARC lifetime achievement award for services to sports journalism.
