Canada’s Ethan Katzberg simply hammered the field on Sunday.
The reigning world champ put up a huge effort in his first attempt of the Olympic men’s hammer throw final at the Stade de France, which easily stood up as the golden heave in Paris.
Katzberg, 22, became the youngest Summer Games hammer throw champ in history with a throw of 84.12 metres — just shy of the Olympic record of 84.80 metres, set by Russia’s Sergey Litvinov in 1988.
Bence Halasz of Hungary won silver at 79.97 metres. Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kohkan was third at 79.39 metres.
“The training leading up to this kept growing and I knew I was capable of something like 84,” Katzberg told CBC Olympics. “To go and do it in the first round, you can’t beat that feeling. Bringing it to the field on the first throw was what I really wanted to do, and 84 … that was incredible.”
Katzberg captured Canada’s 17th medal of Paris 2024. It was the first gold by a Canadian male and the fifth overall for the country.
It also is Canada’s first Olympic gold in a throwing event since 1904 when Etienne Desmarteau won the 56-pound weight throw in St. Louis.
The top eight finalists after three attempts get an additional three attempts, but no one came close to Katzberg.
Canada’s Rowan Hamilton was eliminated after three throws. The reigning NCAA champ, from Chilliwack, B.C., placed ninth.
“Finding calmness on an Olympic level isn’t easy,” Katzberg said. “I don’t know if I was super calm, I was definitely a little nervous. Then the first round came and a lot of those butterflies kind of went away.”
Katzberg led qualifying Saturday with a throw of 79.93 metres.
Katzberg’s Sunday effort was just shy of his world season best of 84.38 metres, set in Kenya in April.
The world record is 86.74 metres by Yuriy Sedykh of Russia in 1986.
The native of Nanaimo, B.C., also won gold at last year’s Pan American Games and silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Katzberg is the first-ever Canadian Olympic champ in the event.
Earlier Sunday, Canada’s Camryn Rogers had the second-best distance in women’s hammer throw qualification to earn a spot in Tuesday’s final. Rogers is the reigning world champ.
