Athletes - Adam Nelson

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	Athletes - Adam Nelson

Adam Nelson is an elite American shotputter. He was born on July 7, 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA,

A 1997 graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Nelson has competed in two Olympic Games. In 1996, Nelson worked at a concession stand during the 1996 Summer Olympics in his hometown of Atlanta.

While he was an undergraduate at Dartmouth, Nelson won various accolades as a member of the track and field team. He still holds the Dartmouth shot put record with a throw of 65 feet, 3 inches. In addition, Nelson played on the football team, becoming the first freshman to play football at Dartmouth in 1993. Prior to his playing, the Ivy League prohibited first-year students from playing on the varsity football team.

In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Nelson earned a silver medal after coming in first place in the 2000 Olympic Trials for shotput. Going into the Games, Nelson was the favorite to win, having won every major shotput event in the summer of 2000. His throw of 69 feet, 7 inches was just three inches short of the throw by the gold medalist.

Nelson's personal best is 22.51, which he threw in 2002. At the time, this was the fourth longest throw in U.S. history and the ninth farthest ever in the world.

Nelson also earned a silver medal in the shot put finals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. His throw of 69 feet, 9 inches tied that of gold medalist Yuriy Bilonog, who won due to a better second best throw. Nelson's silver medal was the first track and field medal for the United States in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Nelson finally achieved his dreams of a major world title when he won gold at the 2005 World Athletics Championships with a throw of 21.73 metres.

Nelson is also a prominent campaigner against doping in sport.

Adam regularly reads and posts on the RING

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Adam Nelson ]

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