Valerie Vili

Valerie Vili (née Adams; born 6 October 1984) is a shot putter from New Zealand. She is the reigning Olympic champion, world champion and Commonwealth record-holder, having thrown a distance of 20.56 m.

Career

Vili first came to prominence when winning the World Youth Championships in 2001, with a throw of 16.87 m. She followed this up in 2002 by becoming World Junior champion, throwing 17.73 m, and had her first taste of senior success winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games with 17.45 m.

She finished fifth at the 2003 World Championships at eighteen years of age.

At her first Olympics in 2004, Vili finished eighth, while still recovering from an appendectomy she had just weeks before the competition.

The following year, she earned a place in the international elite, winning a bronze medal at the World Championships with a personal best throw of 19.87 m, and going on to finish second at the World Athletics Final. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games the 1.96 m-tall athlete won the gold medal, breaking the 20-year-old Commonwealth Games record of 19.00 m with a throw of 19.66 m.

In 2007, Vili went to the Osaka World Championships as a favourite to take a medal due to her being one of only three women to throw over 20m before the championships. In qualifying, Vili led the field with a throw of 19.45 m. Vili held second place behind Nadzeya Astapchuk throughout the final, but responded well in the last round with a mammoth throw and Commonwealth record of 20.54 m to take the gold. This made Vili one of few female athletes ever to take IAAF World Titles at youth, junior and senior level. [ She was the third after Jana Pittman (2003) and Yelena Isinbayeva (2005). Veronica Campbell completed the set the day after Vili.]

In 2008 Vili broke the Oceania record in winning her first World Indoor Title in Valencia (20.19 m).

At the Beijing Olympics, she qualified for the final with the longest distance thrown, 19.73 meters, on her first attempt. She won the gold with a throw of 20.56 m, a personal best, beating Belarussian thrower Natallia Mikhnevich. It is the first Olympic gold medal in track and field for New Zealand since John Walker won the 1,500 meter race in 1976.

She also won the New Zealand Sports Award of the year in 2008.

Personal life

Vili was born in Rotorua, New Zealand to a Tongan mother and Scottish father. She is 23 years old, and married to to Bertrand Vili, a discus thrower from New Caledonia [cite web|url=http://www.hospice.org.nz/valarie-vili-s-cancer-grief/|title=Valerie Vili speaks out|work=New Idea|publisher=Hospice New Zealand|pages=1|language=English|accessdate=2008-08-31] . [cite news |first=Murray |last=Taylor |title=Strong winds suppress results in Hamilton |url=http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=131072/newsId=37506.html |work= |publisher=IAAF |date=6 February 2007 |accessdate=2007-02-06 ] [cite news |first=Murray |last=Taylor |title=Strong winds suppress results in Hamilton |url=http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=131072/newsId=37506.html |work= |publisher=IAAF |date=6 February 2007 |accessdate=2007-02-06 ] Vili is a Latter-day Saint. [ [http://mormontimes.com/MITN_sports.php?id=1824 "Mormon Times", August 25th, 2008] ]

References

*

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnD1LoMU_OA Vili wins the shot put title at the 2007 World Championships] at YouTube
* [http://www.sporting-heroes.net/athletics-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=6860 Page with Photo, one of several at "Sporting Heroes"]