PARIS — Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo won the 2024 Paris Olympic men’s hammer throw competition Sunday night at a packed Stade de France by destroying the competition with his very first toss, an unbeatable 84.12 metres, that nailed down the gold medal right then and there. No other thrower in the emotionally crushed field could even approach the John Barsby Secondary graduate out of the Nanaimo Track and Field Club.
“I can call myself an Olympic champion for the rest of my life,” said Katzberg, as the enormity of what he accomplished sank in.
“It was incredible. It’s a really special moment and I’ll always remember this day.”
It was a day that ended early for everybody else.
“Our plan was to get a good one out there in the first round,” he said.
“For it to be 84 metres definitely relieved some of the nerves. After that, I still tried to go for it and get a little more out, but I couldn’t do it technically.”
He didn’t have to as no other thrower could get past 80 metres. Bence Halász of Hungary won the Olympic silver medal at 79.97 metres and Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine the bronze at 79.39.
“I never want to assume it’s going to be good enough and I keep wanting to improve my mark,” said Katzberg.
“Anything can happen in the Olympics. Fortunately, it was enough to seal the deal. Having an 84-metre throw pop up, that’s a big number to beat. We prepared for this for a whole year. It was the only thing we were thinking about. And to throw an 84 and bring home the gold felt really good. Having that cushion really felt good. But there’s definitely nerves still. Anything can happen. This is the Olympics. This is the event they get the most ready for. Everybody’s at their best and I was still trying to improve my mark after that 84 metres.”
As much as you can describe somebody who is six-foot-six and 236-pounds as poetry in motion, Katzberg is just that. After a seamless spin in the circle, the hammer seems to just glide out of hands and float through the air. Strangely, Katzberg is considered gym-workout, bench-press weak by other throwers.
“You don’t have to be crazy strong,” said Katzberg’s coach, Dylan Armstrong.
“Ethan is hammer strong. He has stretchy muscles that work for him.”
Rowan Hamilton of Chilliwack placed ninth and Adam Keenan of Victoria 13th in a strong Olympic Games showing at the Stade de France for B.C. throwers.
“Ethan is the most efficient guy out there with the most precision,” said Hamilton. He said international throwers are always asking him how the Islander does it.
Katzberg cuts quite the swath with his distinctive moustache and flowing hair, and a body that is more angular and lean than the usual types you see in this event as he has taken the hammer world by storm. His 84.38 metres in April at Nairobi, Kenya was the farthest hammer throw in 16 years and the ninth longest of all-time. It continued his relentless climb that began with the breakthrough silver medal in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and continued with gold medals in 2023 at the world championships in Budapest and Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.
“I was a skinny basketball player. Definitely not the ideal build for hammer, but we got there,” said Katzberg.
Katzberg joined the Nanaimo Track and Field Club at a young age and took part in a variety of disciplines but was always more interested in basketball and played post and forward for the John Barsby Bulldogs in high school hoops. Watching his older sister, Jessica, throw hammer at Barsby got Ethan interested in trying out the discipline. The siblings were first coached by their dad, Bernie Katzberg, a well-known track and field mentor in Nanaimo.
“My dad was Coach No. 1. He learned everything he could about the hammer throw to coach my sister and I. His development side of things was really incredible for a dad just kind of wanting to help his kids,” said Katzberg.
“My dad just kept coaching us through high school until Dylan Armstrong. We were a track and field family. The Nanaimo Track and Field Club is what started it all. It’s really great to support Nanaimo and the track club there. I did every sport growing up. I don’t know why my sister fell into hammer and then I fell in love with it.”
It has turned into more than a pretty good move. Katzberg, at 22, became the youngest Olympic hammer-throw gold medallist. It was the first Olympic gold medal in the hammer for Canada and the first Olympic medal in the event for the nation in well over a century since Duncan Gillis won silver at Stockholm in 1912.
It was the third medal for Canada won by Island or Island-based athletes at the Paris Olympic Games, following the silver medals won by the Langford-based women’s rugby sevens team and the North Cowichan-based women’s rowing eight.
