Valerie Vili

Valerie Kasanita Vili, ONZM (née Adams; born 6 October 1984) is a shot putter from New Zealand. She is the reigning Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion. She also currently holds the New Zealand, Oceanian and Commonwealth records for the shot put with a personal best of 21.07 m.

In 1998 Vili first met former javelin thrower Kirsten Hellier, who would become her long-standing coach.

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.

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.

At the 2009 Grande Prêmio Rio in Brazil Vili won the competition with a new personal best and Oceanian area record of 20.69 m. The throw was also the world leading distance for the event.

On the 16th of August 2009, Vili won the world championship in Berlin with a throw of 20.44 meters, ahead of the German Nadine Kleinert (20.20 PB) and Lijiao Gong of China (19.89 PB).

Vili announced on 28 March 2010 that she would no longer be coached by Kirsten Hellier after an 11 year partnership.

stats
Nationality :New Zealand
Born :October 6, 1984
Place Rotorua, New Zealand
Height: 1.96 m
Weight: 120 kg
Records
Current record holder of Oceania's Shot Put (20,69 m)
Olympic 1 gold
World Championships 2 gold 1 copper
Commonwealth Games 1 gold 1 silver

Diane Kruger

Diane Kruger (born 15 July 1976) is a German actress and former fashion model. She gained worldwide recognition by starring in blockbuster films such as Troy, National Treasure and Inglourious Basterds. She won the Cannes Film Festival Chopard Trophy in 2003. She received the Golden Kamera in Germany in 2010 for her role in Inglourious Basterds.

Kruger soon became interested in acting and took lessons at the Cours Florent. She landed some small appearances in several French films. She then shortened her surname to ease her film career.

She made her onscreen debut in 2002 opposite Dennis Hopper and Christopher Lambert in The Piano Player, a TV-movie by Jean-Pierre Roux. Her first major role was the same year when she starred in her then husband's directorial debut "Mon Idole". She played Julie Wood in 2003's Michel Valliant and Lisa in Wicker Park (2004), alongside Josh Hartnett and Rose Byrne. One of her most notable roles to date is her portrayal of Helen in Wolfgang Petersen's epic Troy. She was ranked Number 50 on the Maxim Hot 100 Women of 2005.

In 2004, Kruger starred with Nicolas Cage and Sean Bean (who co-starred with her in Troy) in the popular film National Treasure, going on to appear in movies such as Joyeux Noël (2005) and Copying Beethoven (2006). She reprised her role as Dr. Abigail Chase in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, released in December 2007.

Kruger was the hostess of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. She was also a member of the jury of the 59th Berlin International Film Festival in 2008.

In 2009, she co-starred as a German actress turned saboteur in Quentin Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds. Kruger stars in 2010 in the Liam Neeson film Unknown White Male alongside January Jones.

In December 2009, she announced the nominations of the 67th Golden Globe Awards and also picked up nominations from the Screen Actors Guild for Best Supporting Actress and Outstanding Performance by a Cast of a Motion Picture for her role in Inglourious Basterds.