Ethan Katzberg aims to highlight his tremendous rise at Paris 2024
Turning back the clock, few would see it coming. When Ethan Katzberg steps into the throwing circle at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, he will do so not only as one of Canada’s first men’s hammer throw Olympians since James Steacy at London 2012 but as a relative youngster amid a tremendous rise in his event.
At 22 years old, he’s heading to Paris as a medal favourite, just eight years after starting in the sport. It wasn’t until after he finished high school in Nanaimo, B.C. when he moved to Kamloops to train with Olympic shot put medallist Dylan Armstrong, that things became more serious.
Throughout the last two years, he’s broken out on the international hammer throw scene, and his resumé has quickly become among the best. He’s the reigning world champion, which he boasts, along with a gold medal from the 2023 Pan Am Games and a silver medal from the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Even with the success, there’s a special, quiet confidence in Katzberg. While his size at 6-foot-6 and 236 pounds can perhaps be menacing at first glance, his flowing mullet, vintage moustache, and gentle attitude encapsulate his determined yet calm approach to sport.
In some ways, his relaxed nature is reflected in his throwing.
After all, in the hectic schedule leading up to his first Olympic Games, he relocated to the vacation paradise that is the Algarve region of Portugal. Famed for its white sand beaches and tropical temperatures, it offered him and Armstrong a relaxing refuge for training compared to the cold Canadian winter.
They weren’t on vacation, though.
Paris prep. Qualify. Throw longer and farther and get stronger—all with eyes on August 2 and 4 when he throws for gold at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, just north of Paris.
“I’m not fighting with my muscles to throw the hammer,” Katzberg told Olympic.ca at the Bell Track & Field Trials at the end of June. “I’m not trying to use my muscles to rip the hammer as hard as I can. I’m just trying to let things go smoothly, in fluid motion, and just let things happen the way they need to.”
For Team Canada, hammer throw presents a fortuitous opportunity in Paris. Not only is Katzberg a favourite in the men’s event, but Camryn Rogers is a podium contender in the women’s event, in which she is also a reigning world champion.
While European nations have dominated the sport – winning 26 of the 34 Olympic gold medals across the women’s and men’s events – these two Canadian throwers (British Columbians, to be exact) are capturing the sport’s global attention, gaining celebrity status in nations where the sport ranks high in the public focus.
“It’s definitely encouraging and rewarding that we’re being acknowledged for our accomplishments, and Camryn’s doing her thing, too,” Katzberg added. “It’s really incredible to have that support.”
A mechanical approach to the moment
At the Bell Track & Field Trials in Montreal in late June, nothing changed for Katzberg, who takes a mechanical approach to competitions. He rolls his shoulders back, shakes out his legs, and puts his body through all the motions required to send the hammer hurtling toward the horizon.
Focusing on repetition, not superstition, he brings his body to the point of a machine. While not reliant on pure strength, the hammer throw takes an exact approach, one that he’s committed to perfecting over his career.
“It’s something that I’ll do in training, in competitions and in the warm-up, and everything is repeating the same thing to try to repeat the same kind of technique,” he said. “It’s getting moving a little bit and then getting into the ring the same kind of way and going through those motions.”
Once warmed up, the same way he likely will in Paris, he wowed the crowd. He nearly made history.
Wind and rain pelted the Claude Robillard Sports Complex. The crowds, while excited, were far smaller than they will be in Paris, but with each throw, Katzberg went farther.
His first was 78.06m, then longer at 80.51m and finally 82.60m on his fourth throw to win the competition and book his ticket to Paris 2024. All were among the longest throws ever made on Canadian soil, and through it all, he smiled, enjoying the moment with a clear idea of what was to come in Paris.
“The crowd really got into the throwing, and that helped me get fired up for the competition,” he told CBC Sports after the event. “It was a lot of fun. We don’t often get crowds so close to the hammer ring and get really involved, and that just made it very exciting.”
While the longest throw on Canadian soil remains the 83.38m thrown by Poland’s Szymon Ziółkowski at the 2001 World Athletics Championship in Edmonton, Katzberg’s attempts came close, and heads to Paris with the world lead in the event.
That world-leading mark, the longest throw by anyone since 2008, came in April in Kenya when he sent the hammer 84.38m at a World Athletics Continental Tour stop, showcasing what he might just be able to bring to the Olympic stage.
“I’m very focused on my own thing and how I prepare for the competitions,” he said. “I stay focused on how I can improve and what I can do differently to do better.”
Timing his peak
While Katzberg teased historic results at the Trials, there might be more to come.
For any athlete preparing for a major event, there’s a focus on peaking for the Games, which often comes with a training taper, ensuring the body is at its freshest form to take on the most important event.
For Katzberg and Armstrong, that taper didn’t come, and it’s part of a generational plan that harkens back to Munich 1972 and Ukrainian Olympic champion Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk, who coached Armstrong to his Olympic bronze in shot put at Beijing 2008.
While Bondarchuk, now 84, isn’t on the field every day with Katzberg, his influence on Canadian throwing is evident and has been since he came to Kamloops in 2005.
Now, 19 years later and nearly a half-century on from Bondarchuk’s last Olympic medal at Montreal 1976, Katzberg finds himself in the perfect spot, with a unique opportunity, hoping to continue Canada’s recent global dominance in hammer throw and cap his incredible rise with Olympic gold.
“I think just the experience and the fans and the crowds [is what I’m excited for],” he said, looking ahead to the Paris Games. “Getting to the stadium and just seeing the scale of everything.”
