Team Canada Completes Hammer Throw Set With Rogers Claiming Gold
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By Noan Gagnon
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Summary:
- Camryn Rogers has won Canada’s first gold Olympic medal in women’s hammer throw.
- The victory of the 25-year-old from Richmond, B.C. followed Ethan Katzberg’s similar success in the men’s event on Sunday.
- Canada’s basketball team saw its Olympic run end on Tuesday when it lost the quarterfinals against France.
On Tuesday, Team Canada added a new gold medal to its toll, reaching 18.
This time, it was Camryn Rogers’s turn to prove her hammer-throwing skills were the best on the planet in the women’s event.
The victory of the 25-year-old from Richmond, B.C. follows Ethan Katzberg’s similar success in the men’s event on Sunday.
In less fortunate news, Canada’s basketball team lost the quarterfinal against host nation country France, exiting the Olympics.
Canadians, the Best at Throwing the Hammer
Canada entered the final week of the Paris Olympics with a new gold medal.
On Day 9, 22-year-old Ethan Katzberb grabbed the most precious medal of them all in the men’s hammer throw.
The Nanaimo, British Columbia-based athlete won with an 84.12m throw, over Hungarian Bece Halasz who came in second with 79.97m, and Ukrainian Mykhaylo KOKHAn with 79.39m in third.
Katzberg made history during the 2023 World Athletics Championships when, at the age of 21, he became the first Canadian to win a world title in the competition.
His victory, which came a few days before teammate Camryn Rogers won the women’s event, also gave him the title of the youngest man to ever win a hammer throw world title, and also the youngest world championship medal winner in the history of the sport.
During the 2023 season, Katzberg worked on improving his personal best by almost five metres, and his efforts paid off at this year’s Olympics.
Just a few days later, teammate Rogers stepped up and delivered a gold of her own, thus becoming the country’s first-ever Olympic medal winner in the hammer throw event.
Poland is the only other country to win both the men’s and the women’s gold medals in hammer throw at the same Olympics.
Rogers’ gold, brought by a throw of 76.97m, her farthest throw on her fourth attempt, also marks Canada’s third ever in a women’s athletics event at the Games.
American Nneka Annette Echikunwoke won silver with 75.48m while Jie Zhao of China finished third with 74.27m.
During Tokyo 2020, when she made her Olympic debut, she became the first Canadian woman to ever advance into the final for the women’s hammer throw at the Games.
As the youngest competitor, she finished fifth overall.
Team Basketball After the Loss: “They Were Better Than Us, Played Harder Than Us”
Team Canada Basketball lost against host team France, 82-73, at the end of what looked like an uninspiring effort in a lopsided quarterfinal.
While the Canadians never led and trailed by as many as 19 points, the game was not out of reach until the very last moments, with Nikola Jokic and Serbia overcoming a 24-point first-half deficit and defeating Australia in overtime, a few hours prior.
Despite the uphill battle they fought from the start, the Canadians met with a French that was ultimately “better”.
After the game, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said the French “played harder than us, and we saw it from the jump”, adding that while they attempted to make their run in the second half, “it wasn’t enough, but that’s what happens when you let teams get off to a good start.”
