India's star javelin thrower must shut out noise, focus on his task, says NZ great
BENGALURU: Battling injuries, returning from surgeries, beating dope cheats, shot putter Valerie Adams have done what appears near impossible to most of the sportspersons. The New Zealand legend ended her career with two Olympic gold medals and four world titles. Her story is the stuff of guts and glory and the
Tokyo Olympics
bronze medallist said there should be no extra pressure on India's golden boy javelin thrower
Neeraj Chopra
as he prepares hard to defend his title at the Olympic Games in Paris in a few months time.
"There is a lot of pressure coming from being the defending
Olympic champion
. India is not a country that has achieved a lot of big things (in
athletics
) at the world level. But he has changed that which is phenomenal and he is growing the sport in the country. He has every potential to do well and to win in Paris. It's just a matter of him sticking to his training and he knows exactly what to do. There will be a lot of pressure. Not only from himself but from the country, federation... He will continue to stay in his lane to be able to focus on what he is going to do. And he should try and shut out as much noise as possible," Adams, who is here as the International Ambassador of TCS World 10K Bengaluru, said at a media interaction.
Recalling her own experience of coping with the weight of expectations, after failing to win a third consecutive gold at the Rio Games, she said a country needs to celebrate every Olympic medal irrespective of its colour. "In Rio, the whole goal was to win a gold for the third time. I finished with a silver medal, I was happy as I had major surgeries in the last three years before that. I had pulled out of the 2015 season and it was my best throw in two years. But nobody else saw that. All they saw was that I won a silver and I didn't defend my title for a third time. And that showed to me that as a country we need to celebrate every medal, regardless of the colour. Because, going to the Olympics is hard, to win a medal is hard, to win a gold is even harder. So everything should be celebrated. But sometimes we sometimes suffer from tall poppy syndrome. Trust me, every athlete who goes out there to compete is giving everything they can on the day and every day leading up to that."
"So
Neeraj
(Chopra) needs all the support as he aims to win the title," the 39-year-old said.
Adams, who is the chairperson of Athletes Commission in
World Athletics
, also firmly backed the world body's move to give prize money to Olympic champions. "I think it is great, moving in that direction. As an athlete, I'm totally for it (prize money) and all the athletes welcome it. Athletics is a sport where we don't make a ton of money unlike cricket or rugby. A sprinter for example gets a different pay cheque from a thrower. A marathon runner and thrower will get different pay cheques. Our sport is taking the lead in the space and hopefully other sports will follow," the towering athlete, who set a world record of 21.24m at the Daegu Worlds in 2011, said.
She didn't agree with the argument of other Federations and the contention that you can't put a prize money tag on an Olympic gold medal. "It's up to other Federations to make that happen. You cannot punish one sport for trying to work for their athletes just because you cannot. You are saying it's priceless. So you are either taking this or nothing. What do you think the athletes would say? The athletes would take it because nobody knows how much they have suffered or worked to be there. If someone can make sure of 50,000 dollars for dedicating four years of their life to become an Olympic champion. Why not?"
Though Adams stayed away from the recent controversy regarding the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Chinese swimmers, she said dope cheats deserve no mercy. "I myself have been impacted by a drug cheat. In 2012, she took drugs, she took that moment away from me. So I know the impact (of drugs). We are definitely heading in the right direction in combating drugs. There has been exceptional progress from 2012 till today."
"It's like a rat race. The testers are always going to chase the dopers because they are always going to find the next best thing. But in athletics we have made great progress. I've been cheated by a doper from Belarus and now she is now banned for life but that's only after three strikes. I finished 9th at the Athens Games and now I'm sitting fifth (after the dope cheats were caught). I was lucky in London as I got the gold seven days later. Adam Nelson (American shot putter) finished second at the 2004 Games and eight years later they gave him the gold medal. But (by then) he missed out on all the contracts and all the bonuses," Adams said.
Tokyo bronze felt like gold
Recalling her stunning journey to win the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, the New Zealand star whose mother was from Tonga and father from England, said the journey from death bed to the Tokyo podium was driven by her resolve to comeback and win laurels.
"After having two children and then on the death bed and to have the drive to train for the Olympics was pretty crazy. And to qualify for the Olympics was insane. Nobody really believed that I was able to do it. But I knew my capabilities. So while I was on my bed of recovery, one day after my major surgery I counted how many days I needed to recover. And then I asked my surgeon when I can go back to training. He looked at me like 'Are you crazy, you just had a major surgery'. But 10 months after having two major operations, I qualified for the Olympics. Because I was so driven I wanted to be there and finish my career on my own terms. But then Covid-19 hit and it kind of put a spanner in my works. My body was getting older but the drive was still there. And due to Covid-19 I was separated from my family for almost four and half months. But now I live to tell my story for the rest of my life. And that's why when I won the bronze medal I had a picture of my two kids. And it felt like I had won the gold medal," she said, showing the pictures of her kids tattooed on her arms.
"A lot of people would have stopped competing after having a major surgery trying to compete. Especially competing in a fifth Olympic Games at my age and a lot of girls thought in Tokyo that she was just here (to make the numbers). But I was going to the Olympics to win a medal," said the champion athlete who had eight sport related surgeries.
Asked to recall the highs and lows of her career, Adams said: "Apart from Tokyo, the high point was the 2011 Daegu Worlds where I broke the meet record which had been there till 1987. I threw 21.24m a phenomenal effort. And the low point would be having to pull out of 2015 Worlds due to injuries. Eight sport-related surgeries. That was the hardest pill to swallow because I was completely pulling out of a season which I had never done before."
English (US) ·