Ethan Katzberg wins Canada's first ever Olympic gold medal in hammer

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PARIS — Ethan Katzberg stepped into the circle, facial hair totally on point, flung the hammer 84.12 metres, and might as well have walked over to the podium, sat down on the top step and twirled his duster for an hour or so.

On this night, and on many others before it, there was nobody in his league.

He’s the hammer throw king; world champion for a year now, Olympic champion for all time. You think the field was intimidated by his first throw, the one that beat them all by at least four metres, the largest margin of victory since the 1920 Games? How about the fact that he’s 22? He might dominate this event for a decade. He most certainly changed his life in the instant that big old ball landed with a golden thud in the grass at Stade de France.

“I can call myself an Olympic champion for the rest of my life, and that’s a really special moment,” he said. “And, you know, I’ll always remember this day. It was incredible.”

There were former world and Olympic champs left in his dust. More than four metres clear of the field? Who does that?

“He’s in the best shape of his life, so he knows that he can throw that far,” said his coach Dylan Armstrong. “And I told him to try and take control right away so that everyone, you know, maybe tenses up a little bit. I think they did, obviously. So, when somebody throws 84 meters, it’s like people start thinking, well, who’s going to come second and third now?”

Bence Halasz of Hungary managed 79.97 metres to collect silver. Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine won a surprising bronze with a heave of 79.39 metres.

“A bronze medal, not what I wanted about the result, but I’m super satisfied with the medal,” he said. “Eighty metres, during the season a lot of times, but here … a lot of people couldn’t throw over 80. Only Ethan, probably he could throw 86 metres.”

The only man who has ever thrown 86 metres is the late Yuri Sedykh, who did it four times for the Soviet Union, and set the world record at 86.74 metres in 1986.

Katzberg’s PB of 84.38 metres, which he threw in Nairobi to open this season, is the 28^th longest ever. But he’s done it at age 22 and has been basically untouchable since bursting onto the scene last season. Katzberg might own the world record in due time, but he didn’t have that in him on Sunday, and he doesn’t know what it takes, but you don’t have to stretch the bounds of imagination to see it happening eventually.

“I don’t know what it feels like to throw 86 metres,” said Katzberg, when asked about the quest. “I’ve got to keep training. I’ve got to keep my head down and focusing on the improvement.”

With that mantra guiding him, his ascension has been nothing short of meteoric. He’s a technician and an athlete, blessed with speed and power to spare. Armstrong saw that in him when he first laid eyes on the skinny basketball player from Nanaimo, B.C.

“I saw a tall, lanky kid that just had a ton of speed, very, very fast in the ring,” said Armstrong, who trains his star pupil in Kamloops, B.C. “And that’s what I was looking for. I’m like, if I can put some muscle and some weight on this kid, I think I can get him throwing far.”

While some critics point out Katzberg’s apparent lack of gym strength, they miss the fact that he’s hammer strong. Until he chucks it 84 metres. Then they figure it out.

“I think people have the wrong idea,” said Armstrong. “I mean, you have to be strong, but you don’t have to be like crazy strong. You’ve got to be hammer strong. And there’s a difference between hammer strong and being gym strong and Ethan’s hammer strong. And he’s got that nice flexible, long muscle, stretchy muscle. That really works for the hammer.”

Armstrong learned all he knows about the event from Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk, the man who coached Sedykh, and who was an Olympic gold medalist himself. Bondarchuk coached in the Soviet Union, Portugal and Kuwait, and wound up working for the Kamloops Track and Field Club in Armstrong’s hometown. He helped Armstrong to Olympic shot put bronze, and now Armstrong has guided Katzberg to hammer gold.

In the shade of that coaching tree, Katzberg has grown in leaps and bounds. He’s a great student, a hard worker, and he listens without hesitation to everything Armstrong tells him.

“You know, I’ve got to give a lot of thanks to my prep man over there, Dylan Armstrong,” said Katzberg. “He got me ready for this. We prepared for this for a whole year. It was the only thing we were thinking about, and to be able to throw 84 and bring home the gold felt really good.”

They spent 65 days in Portugal in the winter. It was the right environment, distraction-free and warm weather. They didn’t go to the Barcelona pre-Games camp, where most Canadian track and field athletes did, opting instead for a place in Leverkusen, Germany. They liked the food. And it wasn’t as hot. And they have hammer specific facilities. When you throw it as far as Katzberg does, that’s a concern.

It certainly was for every other hammer thrower on a glorious Sunday night in Paris, including his Canadian teammate and fellow British Columbian, Rowan Hamilton. The 24-year-old from Chilliwack threw 76.59 metres and finished ninth. He wanted more from himself, but was happy for Katzberg and proud of the fact that two Canadians were on the big stage.

“Just seeing the two of us making the final together, it’s definitely a memory I’ll hold close with me a long time,” said Hamilton.

Adam Keenan of Victoria finished in 13th place, missing out on the final by 0.8 metres.