Canada’s Ethan Katzberg won the gold medal in the men’s hammer throw at the Paris Olympics on Sunday with a dominating performance.
The 22-year-old Katzberg, from Nanaimo, B.C., opened with an Olympic record throw of 84.12 metres and was not seriously challenged through the rest of the competition to win Canada’s first gold medal in the event.
“As the training leading up to this has kept growing, I knew I was capable of something like 84.00m,” Katzberg told CBC Sports.
“To go out and do it in the first round, you can’t beat that feeling.”
The reigning world champion also had the second-best throw at 82.28 metres. No other competitor hit the 80-metre mark.
Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B.C., claimed the gold medal with his first throw of 84.12 at the Olympic hammer throw final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Katzberg, who is unbeaten in 2024, is the youngest-ever Olympic champion in the event.
He topped the podium in his world-championship debut last year.
Canada’s Rowan Hamilton (76.59) finished ninth. The Chilliwack, B.C. native was second in the qualifying round on Saturday, behind Katzberg.
Canada’s last Olympic hammer throw medal came 112 years ago, when Duncan Gillis claimed silver in Stockholm 1912.
Defending Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki finished seventh. Five-time world champ Pawel Fajdek, who also from Poland, was fifth.
The first ever Canadian to win Olympic gold in the hammer throw, Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B.C. makes history.