Hammer winner Wojciech Nowicki at the Tokyo Olympic Games (© AFP / Getty Images)
Men's hammer
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• World champion Ethan Katzberg is undefeated this year and has the world-leading throw of 84.38m
• Defending champion Wojciech Nowicki has finished no lower than third in any competition from 2019 onwards
• Pawel Fajdek has won five world titles but has not yet won an Olympic gold
At the time of the last Olympic Games, Ethan Katzberg was 19 years old and preparing to compete at the World U20 Championships in Nairobi.
He may not have had the best experience in the Kenyan capital – he recorded three no throws in the final – but just two years later he produced one of the biggest surprises of the World Championships in Budapest to take gold with a Canadian record of 81.25m.
He has been undefeated since then, showing that his Budapest win was no fluke. He rounded out his 2023 campaign by winning the Pan-American title, then opened his 2024 season with a world-leading North American record of 84.38m.
Katzberg has won all nine of his competitions this season, throwing beyond 80 metres in seven of those. His final competition before heading to the Games was a 81.87m win in Szekesfehervar, where he beat pretty much all of the Olympic medal contenders.
Canada has never had a top-eight finisher in the men’s hammer at the Olympic Games, let alone a medallist. The last winner from North America, meanwhile, was USA’s Hal Connolly was back in 1956.
There are plenty of athletes trying to prevent Katzberg making history in Paris, though.
Defending Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki is one of the most formidable competitors not just in the hammer but in the entire sport. The 35-year-old from Poland has featured on the podium at the past 11 major championships (Olympics, World Championships and European Championships).
In fact, the last time he finished lower than third in any competition was back in 2018 at the Continental Cup. He threw a season’s best of 80.95m to win his third straight European title in June, and he won’t want to surrender his Olympic title without a fight.
He’ll be up against compatriot and long-time rival Pawel Fajdek. The five-time world champion is one of the most decorated hammer throwers in history, though he hasn’t always had the best of times at the Olympics. He failed to register a valid throw in qualifying in 2012, then finished a distant 17th in qualifying in 2016. He finally broke his Olympic jinx in 2021, though, and claimed the bronze medal.
The 35-year-old had a low-key start to the 2024 season and finished sixth at the European Championships, but since then he has found his groove and he won the Polish title with 80.02m, beating Nowicki. He followed that with victory at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.
Since the 2016 Olympics – the first time Nowicki finished ahead of Fajdek at a major event – the Polish duo are tied at 40-40 in their head-to-head record.
Hungary’s Bence Halasz missed out on making the Olympic final in Tokyo, but since then he has proven himself in the championship arena, taking world bronze last year and European silver in Rome in June, throwing a season’s best of 80.49m.
Mykhaylo Kokhan finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics at the age of 20. The Ukrainian then placed fifth at last year’s World Championships and he secured his first major senior medal in June this year when taking bronze at the European Championships. He’s had four competitions beyond 80 metres this year, topped by a season’s best of 80.76m, and has finished no lower than third in any of his outings.
US duo Daniel Haugh and Rudy Winkler have made the past three global championship finals. Both have achieved a sixth-place finish, Winkler at the 2022 World Championships and Haugh in Budapest last year, so they’ll be looking to improve on that.
And keep an eye out for Olympic debutants Merlin Hummel of Germany and Yann Chaussinand of France, who finished fourth and fifth respectively at the European Championships.
Women's hammer
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• World champion Camryn Rogers has won all but one of her competitions this year
• 2019 world champion DeAnna Price is the leading US thrower heading to Paris
• Three-time Olympic champion and world record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk will be competing at her fifth Games
Perhaps the biggest storyline in this discipline this year was Brooke Andersen’s failure to make the US Olympic team.
The 2022 world champion threw a world-leading 79.92m earlier in the season, but recorded three fouls in the final of the US Olympic Trials and so missed out on being selected for the Games. Compatriot Janee Kassanavoid, a medallist at the past two World Championships, also failed to make the cut, placing sixth.
But despite their absence, there will still be a strong North American presence at the Games – quite the turnaround, given that no woman from USA or Canada has ever won an Olympic medal in the hammer.
Camryn Rogers in the hammer at the Tokyo Olympics (© Getty Images)
The North American charge is led by world champion Camryn Rogers. The Canadian has won all but one of her competitions this year, topped by her 77.76m victory at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene – more than half a metre farther than her winning throw at the World Championships in Budapest last year.
The 25-year-old was fifth at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, then went on to take Commonwealth gold and world silver in 2022.
DeAnna Price has had a few rollercoaster years since winning the world title in 2019. She threw a North American record of 80.31m in 2021, but then finished eighth at the Olympics. Injury prevented her from being at her best in 2022, but she rebounded in 2023 and claimed world bronze in Budapest before winning the Pan-American title at the end of the year.
She finished second at the US Olympic Trials and heads to Paris with a season’s best of 77.16m for what will be her third Olympics.
Annette Echikunwoke was the surprise winner of the US Olympic Trials. The 28-year-old threw a season’s best of 74.68m to claim victory and she’ll be looking to improve on her 12th-place finish from the 2022 World Championships, her sole global appearance to date.
No talk of Olympic hammer throwing, however, would be complete without mentioning Anita Wlodarczyk – the only woman in history to win three Olympic titles in a single athletics discipline.
The 38-year-old Pole still holds the world record at 82.98m. Although her season’s best is some 10 metres shy of that mark, she is still competitive on the international stage, as shown by the silver medal she earned at the European Championships in Rome.
Wlodarczyk won gold in every world, Olympic and European final she contested between 2012 and 2021. For the first time in her long career, though, Wlodarczyk missed out on making a global final at the World Championships last year. She’ll at least want to make amends for that in Paris in what will be her fifth Olympic appearance.
Sara Fantini beat Wlodarczyk to the European title in Rome, throwing 74.18m. The Italian was 12th in the last Olympic final, so will be keen to improve on that in Paris.
Moldova’s Zalina Marghieva and Finland’s Krista Tervo have both set national records this year and are among the six best entrants on season’s bests, so they’ll be hopeful of at least reaching the final.
Chinese athletes have won medals in the women’s hammer at the past four Olympics, and this year their best bet of a podium finish appears to rest with Zhao Jie. The 21-year-old won the Asian title last year, and improved her PB to 75.42m in her final competition before heading to Paris.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
