The men's hammer throw at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in Paris, France, on 2 and 4 August 2024. This was the 29th time that the event is contested at the Summer Olympics.
Summary The revelation of 2023 was Ethan Katzberg who had grown from fouling out at the 2021 U20 Championships to winning the 2023 World Championships. At the time the narrow victory over Olympic Champion Wojciech Nowicki may have marked a changing of the guard. Silver medalist Eivind Henriksen and bronze medalist Paweł Fajdek were back but now well over 30, not abnormal for hammer throwers. World Championship bronze medalist Bence Halász is still in his late 20's, but Katzberg is only 22. This season Katzberg dominated the top throws, setting a North American record at 84.38m in April and 8 different competitions over 80. The only other throwers over 80 meters were Nowicki, Fajdek, Halász and Mykhaylo Kokhan, age 23 who threw over 80 five times. A Russian and a Belorussian were not invited to the Olympics.https://worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/hammer-throw/all/men/senior/2024?regionType=world&page=1&bestResultsOnly=false&maxResultsByCountry=all&eventId=10229621&ageCategory=senior
In the qualifying round, only Rudy Winkler made an auto qualifier of 77 meters on his first attempt. After cleaning up a first round foul, Katzberg led five auto qualifiers. It took 75.25m to get into the final.
In the finals, Nowicki started with a 77.42m, Kokhan topped that with 78.54m and Winkler put himself in position with 77.92m. Then, Katzberg stepped into the ring and launched his first throw of the finals at . It was game over at that point, with the other competitors now having to fight it out for silver and bronze. In the second round, Kokhan improved to 79.39m and Henriksen moved up to 79.18m. In the third round, Halász pushed Henriksen off the podium with a 79.97m, the Katzberg backed up his first throw with an 82.28m. They went through the formality of three more rounds as no other thrower broke 80m, but only Fajdek improved to 78.80m and that only put him in fifth.
Katzberg was the first Canadian to win the Hammer, the first North American since 1956, and only the third non-(former) Soviet Bloc athlete to win since WWII.
Background The men's hammer throw has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since the second edition in 1900. +Global records before the 2024 Summer OlympicsRecordAthlete (Nation)Distance (m)LocationDateWorld record86.74"All time Top lists – Senior – Hammer throw men ", World Athletics, 29 June 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.Stuttgart, West Germany30 August 1986Olympic record84.80Seoul, South Korea26 September 1988World leading84.38"Season Top Lists – Senior 2024 – Hammer throw men ", World Athletics, 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.Nairobi, Kenya20 April 2024 +Area records before the 2024 Summer OlympicsArea RecordAthlete (Nation)Distance (m)Africa (records)81.27Asia (records)84.86Europe (records)86.74 WRNorth, Central America and Caribbean (records)84.38Oceania (records)79.29South America (records)78.63
Qualification
For the men's hammer throw event, the qualification period was between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024. 32 athletes were able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by throwing the entry standard of 78.20 m or further or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.Sean McAlister, "How to qualify for athletics at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained ", Olympics.com, 20 December 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
Results
Qualification The qualification was held on 2 August, starting at 10:10 (UTC+2) for Group A and 11:35 (UTC+2) for Group B in the morning. 32 athletes qualified for the first round by qualification distance or world ranking."Paris 2024 - Olympic Schedule - Athletics ", Olympics.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024. Qualification: 77.00 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the final. RankGroupAthleteNation123DistanceNotes1BEthan KatzbergX79.9379.932ARowan Hamilton76.97X77.7877.78, 3AMykhaylo KokhanX77.4277.424BRudy Winkler77.2977.295BEivind Henriksen X 77.14 77.14, 6BBence Halász 76.84 72.89 76.9076.907AYann ChaussinandX75.4376.8676.868AThomas Mardal76.1676.7873.7176.789BPawel FajdekXX76.5676.5610AWojciech NowickiX76.3275.5076.3211BChristos Frantzeskakis 75.53 73.94 74.2175.5312BMerlin Hummel 75.25 X X75.2513BAdam KeenanX69.9774.4574.4514BDenzel ComenentiaX72.1774.3174.3115ARagnar Carlsson72.7273.9673.9473.9616BVolodymyr Myslyvčuk73.84XX73.8417AMatija Gregurić71.4872.9473.6973.6918ASerghei Marghiev73.46X70.7373.4619AWang Qi65.4372.5269.6072.5220BGabriel Kehr72.2872.1272.3172.3121BDániel Rába71.37X72.2972.2922BDiego del Real69.3972.10X72.1023BJoaquín GómezX64.9472.1072.1024AHumberto Mansilla71.7571.8370.8171.8325ADonát Varga69.9571.6569.7171.6526BJerome Vega69.1971.6170.4471.6127BÖzkan BaltacıX71.4071.2471.4028ASören Klose71.20XX71.2029AMihail AnastasakisX70.14X70.1430AMostafa El Gamel68.1268.6570.0970.0931APatrik Hájek67.9668.4568.8068.80ADaniel HaughXXX
Final The final was held on 4 August, starting at 20:30 (UTC+2) in the evening. RankAthleteNation123456DistanceNotesEthan Katzberg84.12X82.28XXX84.12Bence Halász77.5878.8479.9779.9477.6679.8279.97Mykhaylo Kokhan 78.5479.39X78.1776.5379.2479.394Eivind Henriksen76.4579.18XX76.11X79.185Pawel Fajdek78.0177.2278.5778.80X76.6478.806Rudy Winkler77.92XXX71.90X77.927Wojciech Nowicki77.4277.2876.7577.03X75.9277.428Yann Chaussinand XX77.3877.15XX77.389Rowan Hamilton76.59XX Did not advance 76.5910Merlin Hummel74.8576.03X Did not advance 76.0311Thomas Mardal74.2573.68X Did not advance 74.2512Christos FrantzeskakisX73.34X Did not advance 73.34
References