Adam Nelson

Adam Nelson was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended The Lovett School in Atlanta where he was a letterman and a standout in football and track and field. Nelson graduated from Lovett in 1993 and moved on to Dartmouth College, graduating from the Ivy League school in 1997. As an undergraduate at Dartmouth, Nelson earned various accolades as a member of the track and field team, including the collegiate shot put title at the 1997 NCAA championships with a throw of19.62 m (64 ft. 4 ½ in.).

Nelson holds the Dartmouth shot put record with a throw of 65 feet 3 inches (19.88 m). In addition to shot put, Nelson played football at Dartmouth, as a linebacker and later, as a defensive tackle. In 1993 he became the first freshmen ever to play football on the Dartmouth squad. Prior to 1993, the Ivy League prohibited first-year students from playing on the varsity football team. Nelson was a member of Dartmouth's 1996 undefeated Ivy League champion team.

Adam Nelson earned a silver medal In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Prior to the Games, Nelson was considered the favorite to win gold. He had won the title in every major shot put event leading up to the Olympic Games that summer including the 2000 Olympic Trials. At the 2000 Games, his throw of 21.21 m (69 ft 7 in) was three inches (8 cm) short of the winning throw of gold medalist, Arsi Harju of Finland.

Nelson's personal best in the shot put is 22.51 m (73 ft 10 in), which he threw in 2002. At that time, this was the third-longest throw in U.S. history and the ninth-farthest ever in the world.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece the shot put was held in a spectacular setting at the original Stadium of Ancient Olympia, bringing Olympic competition back to the venue for the first time in over a millennium.

With Nelson and Bilonog precisely tied on distance after six-rounds, the tie-breaker rule came into effect, counting the competitors' second-best throws. Because Nelson had fouled on each throw after the opening round, he had no second mark. Yuriy Bilonog was awarded the gold medal; Nelson was awarded his second consecutive Olympic silver medal. Nelson's shot put Silver was the first track and field medal for the United States in the 2004 Summer Olympics.

At the 2005 World Athletics Championships, Nelson won his first major world title with a throw of 21.73 meters (71 feet, 3 inches). Two years later, he won a silver medal at the 2007 World Athletics Championships with a throw of 21.61 meters (70 feet, 10 inches). At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Nelson failed to throw a valid mark in the final. In the qualifying round, Nelson had a throw of 20.56 meters (67 feet, 5 inches). At the 2009 and 2011 World Athletics Championships, Nelson failed to medal in the finals, finishing 5th and 8th place, respectively.

In 2012, retroactive testing on competitors' urine samples retained from the 2004 Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee revealed that 2004 Olympic gold medalist Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine was guilty of performance-enhancing drug use. In 2012, the IOC re-tested approximately 100 urine samples from specific events in the 2004 Games and found that four medal winners in Track and Field (both men and women, all in the throwing events) tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

On December 5, 2012 the IOC announced that men's shot put winner Bilonog, and women's shot put third-place finisher, Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia, re-tests showed positive for the steroid agent, Oxandrolone. Bilonog was stripped of his gold medal. The IOC, following established rules, allowed Bilonog (and the others disqualified) 21 days to appeal the ruling. Although no appeal was filed, the IOC waited another five months, to May 30, 2013, before declaring Adam Nelson the 2004 Olympic champion and awarding him the gold medal.

Nelson's silver medal in the shot put at the 2004 Summer Olympics was upgraded to a gold medal retroactively in 2013 after Yuriy Bilonog's urine sample tested positive for performance-enhancing drug use. With the advent of drug testing at international athletic competitions, it has become increasingly common for athlete disqualifications from placements in standings months or years after the event conclusions.

In 2017, Adam Nelson joined Michael Phelps in speaking before a U.S. Congressional committee examining anti-doping measures in international sporting events.

In 2017, Nelson moved to Houston with his wife and two kids, where he works for The D10, an events organization, that like the Olympic movement, has found ways to leverage physical performance to create a massive social impact, raising over $12 million for pediatric cancer research and treatment.