Adams competed in the Australian women's national wheelchair basketball team's first international tournament, which took place in St. Ettienne, France in 1990, and Australia finished in sixth place. She participated in the training camp for the women's team in preparation for the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics but did not make the final selection. This disillusioned her and she did not compete in the sport for several years. She was selected for the 1996 Atlanta Games squad and moved from Western Australia to Melbourne to be on the national team. Between 1996 and 2000, the government increased funding for Australian Paralympic athletes. Before this period, Adams and other Paralympians were largely paying their own way to compete, such as the case with Adams paying her own way to compete in France. Getting compensation from government funding of sport organisations meant that she could spend more time working on improving her sporting performance. In the eight months before the 2000 Summer Paralympics, she could be an athlete full-time. She was part of the national squad that beat Canada in a June 2000 tournament. The victory against the Canadians was the first time Canada had lost a game in a tournament in ten years. She was part of the silver medal winning Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2000 Summer Paralympics.