Canada has never won an Olympic gold medal in a throwing event, but that could soon change.
The reigning female and male hammer throw world champions, Camryn Rogers and Ethan Katzberg, will be wearing the maple leaf in Paris.
“I think they’re going to be fierce competitors and from all early season results, they’re going to be vying for the medals and hopefully focusing exclusively on gold with both of them being current world champions,” said former Olympic decathlete and CBC Sports analyst Michael Smith.
“That sets the tone for the rest of the field to feed off of them. So I am super excited to watch.”
It’s been more than 100 years since Canada won an Olympic medal in hammer throw, when Duncan Gillis won a silver medal in 1912.
WATCH | Life for Katzberg as a 22-year-old world champion:
Ethan Katzberg became the hammer throw world champion at 21 years old. He’s spending his time now in Portugal in preparation of Paris 2024.
Not to be forgotten is Sarah Mitton, who enters her second Olympics as a medal contender in shot put.
“It’s really exciting to be on a team that’s about to win a lot of medals because the momentum that you feel as the team starts to pick a few up, it elevates the entire team,” Mitton, who’s ranked second in the world, told The Canadian Press earlier this year.
Here’s a look at the three athletes putting Canada on the map as a throwing country.
Camryn Rogers
Richmond, B.C.’s Rogers was the youngest competitor at the Olympics in Tokyo, where she finished in fifth place.
She won silver at the world championship in Oregon in 2022. That made her the first Canadian woman to win a world championship medal in a field event.
Then, Rogers bested that result a year later in Hungary, throwing 77.22 metres to win gold. The 25-year-old is now ranked number one in the world.
The qualification rounds in women’s hammer throw begin on Sunday at 4:20 a.m. ET. The final is set for Tuesday at 1:57 p.m.
You can watch Olympic coverage on CBC TV, CBC Gem, the CBC Olympics app and CBC Olympics website.
Ethan Katzberg
Katzberg goes into his first Olympics ranked number one in the world.
The 22-year-old from Nanaimo, B.C. is coached by Dylan Armstrong, who won Canada’s first Olympic shot put medal in Beijing in 2008.
A throw of 81.25 won Katzberg gold at the world championship in Hungary last year.
He’s already beat that in a big way, throwing 84.38 metres back in April. That’s the best mark in the world this year by more than two metres, and the longest throw recorded since 2008.
What both Rogers and Katzberg have accomplished so far is “beyond incredible,” Smith said.
Katzberg’s biggest Olympic competition is likely to come from Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki, the reigning Olympic gold medallist who is ranked second in the world. Nowicki finished second behind Katzberg at worlds last year.
Qualification rounds begin for men’s hammer throw on Friday at 4:10 a.m. ET. The final is set for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Sarah Mitton
Mitton finished 28th in Tokyo, her first Olympics.
This time, the 28-year-old from Brooklyn, N.S. is going into the Olympics as a world silver medallist.
To win Olympic gold, Mitton will have to defeat top-ranked American Chase Jackson, who beat Mitton for gold at worlds last year.
“Right now, Sarah seems to be on top of her game with confidence, of course her ability,” Smith said.
“Being a somewhat underdog, a silver medallist from last year, is a bit of a benefit in my opinion.”
