Area shotputter headed to Olympics [April 15]

Less than four months before the Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing, NPR profiles one of America’s top medal hopes, Adam Nelson. “[O]ne of the greatest shot-putters in U.S. history,” NPR reported on Monday, “[h]e is the only American track and field athlete to win a medal at every major outdoor championship since 2000, including Olympic silver medals in 2000 and 2004.” The Darden business student and Charlottesville resident recently failed to qualify for the track and field indoor world championships in Valencia, Spain, because he was too busy practicing for the Olympics on UVA’s campus. “If I’d gone to Valencia,” he told NPR, “maybe I wouldn’t be as hungry as I am right now.”