Adam Nelson

Adam Nelson was a shot putter who competed at three Olympic Games and won gold in 2004 at Olympia, although it took a bit longer than usual to win that gold medal.

Nelson attended high school at The Lovett School in Atlanta and then went to Dartmouth College where he threw the shot and played football. In 1993 he was the first freshman to play football for Dartmouth as that was the first year the Ivy League allowed freshman to play varsity football. Nelson won the 1997 NCAA title in the shot put.

Internationally Nelson appeared at six consecutive World Championships from 2003-11, winning the title in 2005 and getting silver medals in 2003 and 2007. He also won the 2001 Goodwill Games, the 2005 World Athletics Final, and the 1994 World Junior Championships.

At the 2004 Olympics the shot put competition was held at Ancient Olympia. Nelson and Ukraine’s Yuriy Bilonog tied with the best mark of 21.16 metres. Nelson had only one fair throw, although he had a long foul on his sixth that he protested vociferously. Because Bilonog had other fair throws, he won the gold medal initially on tie breaker rules.

In 2012 when WADA was re-testing samples from earlier Olympics, Bilonog’s sample came back positive for an oxandrolone metabolite, an anabolic steroid, and he was disqualified. After appeals, the disqualification became official in May 2013 and Nelson later received his gold medal at a food court in the Atlanta airport – nine years after the competition ended.

Nelson and his family settled in Houston where they helped raise over $12 million for pediatric cancer research and treatment. In 2020 they returned to his roots when he was named the athletic director at The Lovett School.

Personal Best: SP – 22.51 (2002).