Two-time Olympic champion and four-time world outdoor gold medallist ends her competitive career aged 37

One of the most dominant and admired athletes of recent years, shot putter Valerie Adams, has decided to retire from track and field.

During a stellar career she won four world titles from 2007-13, four world indoor crowns from 2008-14, Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012, plus three Commonwealth Games titles. Given this the New Zealand athlete is widely considered the greatest female shot putter in history.

“It’s pretty hard, but I know in my heart it’s the right thing,” she said. “I’m very happy and at peace with my announcement and it’s taken some time to get to this stage.

“It’s always hard, this is all I’ve known … that transition is going to take some time but I’m ready for it and looking forward to the next challenge, whatever that may be.”

HOT SHOT! The latest AW hits newsstands TOMORROW featuring IAAF athlete of the year @ValerieAdams84 as coverstar! pic.twitter.com/jfCJTlblE1

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) November 26, 2014

A world youth and junior champion, she made her world championships debut in Paris in 2003 as a teenager and was a promising fifth.

In Helsinki in 2005, she was originally presented with a bronze, which was upgraded to silver when Natalya Ostapchuk was retrospectively disqualified for drug-taking nine years later. Adams was not aware at the time of competing but she missed gold by just two centimetres with two throws of both 19.62m.

In 2007, the New Zealander defeated Ostapchuk by six centimetres with a Commonwealth record 20.54m final round throw. She defended in Berlin in 2009 with a 20.44m throw but saved her best for Daegu in 2011. There in South Korea, she defeated Ostapchuk by well over a metre with a throw of 21.24m.

Not only was it a PB, a Commonwealth and Oceania record, it equalled the longest ever throw in a World Championships.

She made it four in a row in Moscow in 2013 with a 20.88m throw.

She has also won two Olympic and three world indoor titles, though only won in London 2012 when Ostapchuk failed a drugs test.

She missed the 2015 World Championships through injury and was not back to her best in Rio in 2016, where she took silver behind Michelle Carter of the United States.

Shot put star @ValerieAdams84 claimed her 51st consecutive win in Lausanne and here she is gracing the cover of AW! pic.twitter.com/dbtymZNIJl

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) July 9, 2014

In 2017 she was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and had a break from athletics to have the first of two children. She returned to competition at the 2018 Commonwealth Games to win silver and then at the Tokyo Olympics last year took bronze.