Golden Sweep: Canada Tops Both Men’s and Women’s Hammer Throw at Paris Olympics

Canada's Camryn Rogers celebrates her gold medal won in the women's hammer throw event at the Summer Olympics in Paris, on Aug. 6, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Canada made a clean sweep of the hammer throw at the Summer Olympics in Paris, taking gold first in the men’s event and then the women’s in a sport that many Canadians may not know much about.

It started when Ethan Katzberg, 22, won gold in the men’s hammer throw on Aug. 4. Two days later, Camryn Rogers, 25, did the same in the women’s event.

With the two victories, Canada became only the second country, after Poland, to take both the men’s and women’s hammer gold medals at the same Olympics.

A Richmond, B.C., native, Rogers claimed the title with a throw distance of 76.97 metres. American Annette Nneka Echikunwoke came in second at 75.48 metres, and China’s Zhao Jie took bronze with 74.27 metres.

“I heard my coach screaming from the stands and looked over and saw my family just losing their minds,” she said, reported Olympic.ca. “I think that was when it was like very clear to me, like ‘Oh my God, like this is it, it’s over. I did it, like we did this thing.’”

She said having her family there, and especially her mom, made it even better.

“My mom has done everything in her life for me to have the best one possible,” Rogers said, adding that her mother supported her by working two jobs and getting her to practices.

“This is everything that she’s been fighting for as well. … My mom to me is my best friend, and I just love that I was able to share this with her.”

Rogers first competed in the hammer throw at an Olympics Games during Tokyo 2020, which was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She became the first Canadian woman to reach an Olympic hammer throw final when she finished fifth that year.

Poland has won four of the last six competitions in the Olympics women’s hammer throw and is the home country of world record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk.

‘Coach Number One’

Katzberg achieved a distance of 84.12 metres, becoming the only thrower to surpass the 80-metre mark at the 2024 Olympics hammer throw final, and the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in the event since Stockholm 1912, when Duncan Gillis took silver.

Katzberg, who hails from Nanaimo, B.C.,  said it was a moment he’d remember forever.

“I can call myself an Olympic champion for the rest of my life, and that’s a really special moment and I'll always remember this day,” he told The Canadian Press. “It was incredible.”

Katzberg’s personal best is 84.38 metres. He says he’s not done yet.

“I don’t know what it feels like to throw 86 metres,” he said, referring to the world record of 86.74 set by the Soviet Union’s Yuriy Sedykh at the European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1986. “I’ve gotta keep training, I’ve gotta keep my head down and focusing on improving.”

Katzberg thanked his father for helping him get to where he is, calling him “coach number one.”

“He learned everything he could about the hammer throw to coach my sister and I,” Katzberg said, reported Olympic.ca. “Honestly, his development side of things was really incredible for just, you know, a dad kind of wanting to help his kid.”

Katzberg earned silver in the hammer throw event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, followed by gold in that event in the 2023 World Athletics Championships.

History of Hammer Throw

Hammer throwing has a long history as a track and field sport.

It developed in the British Isles, and according to legend was played at the Tailteann Games in Ireland in about 2,000 B.C., when it involved hurling a chariot wheel. Later, this was replaced by throwing a boulder attached to a wooden handle. Ancient Germanic peoples practised various forms of hammer throwing at religious festivals, and sledgehammer throwing was practised in 15th- and 16th-century Scotland and England.

The men’s Olympic event started in 1900, while the women’s hammer throw was introduced in 2000.

The current rules state that the hammer should weigh 7.26 kilograms (16 pounds) for the men’s competition and is to be no longer than 1,215 millimetres (47.8 inches).

In the women’s competition, the hammer is to weigh four kilograms (8.8 pounds) and measure no longer than 1,195 millimetres (47 inches).

Athletes rely on strength, balance, and timing as they make three quick spins of the body before flinging the hammer.

Soviet Sergey Litvinov holds the Olympic record in the men’s hammer throw, with a distance of 84.80 metres in Seoul 1988.

Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk set the women’s hammer throw world record at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, with a distance of 82.29 metres. Two weeks later, she broke the world record again with an 82.98-metre throw at the Skolimowska Memorial in Warsaw. She is the first woman in history to throw the hammer over 80 metres.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.