Adams was a competitive sport shooter. He started shooting competitively in 1993, after some previous experience with shooting working on farms. He shot from a prone position on the ground similar to that of Olympic competitors, instead of a prone position in his wheelchair. He had an
Australian Institute of Sport scholarship from 1998 to 2000. In 1998, Adams set a world record at the
English Match and won a gold medal in the 50m Rifle Prone event at the
IPC Shooting World Championships in
Santander, Spain. He finished first at the Swiss Open in 2002 and 2003. In 2011, he competed in
ISSF World Cup events in
Turkey and Spain, where he finished first in the Spanish .22 event and second in the Turkish air rifle event. In 2011, he was ranked first in the world in two different shooting events. In that year, he was also ranked as one of the top able-bodied open shooters in Australia. At the 2008 Beijing Games, he finished fourth in both the 10 m air rifle standing event the 50 m free rifle prone events. He finished in the top twenty in all four of his events at the 2012 London Games. ==Recognition==