PARIS — Ethan Katzberg could probably hang out on the corner of Yonge and Bloor in Toronto, implement in hand, and not draw a stare, save from the odd medieval cosplay fan.
He’s an Olympic champion in hammer throw, a sport wholly unfamiliar to many Canadians, but widely appreciated and in some cases adored in pockets of Europe.
The gold medal he won on Sunday — after obliterating the field with a Herculean toss of 84.12 metres — will pair nicely with the world championship gold he won last year in Hungary, to cement his status on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
But it might not cause a rush to the big-box, hammer-throwing supply store back home, except perhaps in British Columbia, the beating heart of hammer in Canada.
Katzberg, 22, is from Nanaimo. Rowan Hamilton, a 24-year-old who finished ninth in Sunday’s final, is from Chilliwack. Adam Keenan, 30, from Victoria, finished 13th, just .80 metres from a spot in the final. And 25-year-old Camryn Rogers, the reigning women’s world champ who needed just two throws to top qualifying for the Olympic final here, is from Richmond.
What the heck is going on out there?
“In B.C., you’re actually allowed to start throwing hammer when you’re 12,” said Garrett Collier, who coached Rogers and Hamilton years ago and now runs the B.C. Throws Project, which came into existence in 2015 with funding from B.C. Athletics. “If you’re in the club system, by the time you get to high school, you probably have one or two years of throwing under your belt.
“Then, because we’re able to throw in high school, we’re able to find more kids who weren’t in the club system and are trying hammer for the first time in grade eight or 10. Some of our best athletes have come out of the high school ranks.”
No other province in Canada holds high school competitions in hammer throw. But it isn’t that simple. Behind every medal-winning athlete is a succession of coaches.
Keenan is coached by Sheldon Gmitroski in Victoria, Hamilton and Rogers are both at the University of California Berkeley with Mo Saatara now, but Hamilton started with Collier and Rogers with Collier’s late father, Richard.
“It’s an amazing story for us,” Hamilton said. “We all came up with different coaches and a lot of people think we all train together, but we actually haven’t really trained together except for (pre-Games) training camps, of course. I just think there are a lot of talented coaches in B.C. There is a lot of knowledge in British Columbia about throwing and there are a lot of athletes who want to throw right now. Very exciting.”
He followed his sister into the sport at age 14 and at first being first by his father before Armstrong took over the program, with plenty of support from the great Dr. Anatoliy Bondarchuk. He is the go-to guru of the discipline, having coached a handful of Soviet throwers to hammer throw medals at the Olympics and world championships before spending his golden years in Kamloops, where he still lives.
His reaction-based method of using stimulation and adaptation through central nervous system training gets results — and followers. A core of Bondarchuk pilgrims moved to Kamloops from all over Canada and the U.S. in the early 2000s and nearly all threw their personal bests in hammer and shot put under his tutelage.
Armstrong, who still consults with Bondarchuk regularly, most often coaches Katzberg at their training base in Kamloops. Armstrong also has encouraged his young daughters to pick up an age-appropriate version of the implement.
“It definitely makes a difference, starting that event so young because it is arguably the most technical event in track and field,” Armstrong said. “It starts becoming a bit addicting. The growth, if they put a little time into it, can happen quite fast, so I think some kids get hooked on it. It’s crucial to mention, I think we did get a head start on it in B.C.”
Bondarchuk arrived in Kamloops in 2005, bringing with him a wealth of knowledge. It has been passed on to a slew of coaches and in turn to many athletes.
“When we’re looking at the success that Ethan and Camryn and Rowan and Adam have had, a large lion’s share of that is the relationship between the coach and the athlete and the fact that we do have a good level of expertise in the hammer event and other throwing events,” said Collier. “The whole idea around the throws project was to get ourselves to the point where our top athletes could feel supported by a community. Our main goal, our mission statement was to put B.C. athletes on international podiums, which is great and we’ve been able to do that.”
Katzberg is the first Canadian to hit a podium in the Olympic hammer throw since 1912 and the first ever to win a gold medal. Rogers likely will be the next. That should raise the profile in Canada, but it won’t ever match that of Europe, especially in hammer hot spots like Hungary and Poland.
“Is it ever going to be like Europe? Probably not,” Armstrong said in May. “Ethan gets a lot of attention in Europe and he knows and I know that he needs to build his career in Europe and if, along the way, that builds a legacy in B.C. and Canada, that’s great, but we both agree and I told Ethan this, you need to build your career in Europe. That’s where it counts, that’s where it matters.
“If you do throw far in North America, that’s great, but it’s going to pack more of a punch if you do it on European soil. There is no question. Culturally, it’s just way different.”
Oddly enough, Americans owned the hammer throw early, winning 14 of 18 medals from Paris 1900 through Paris 1924. The Soviets took over from the 1950s through the ‘80s, then ceded podium territory to athletes from Poland, Hungary, Belarus, Japan, Slovenia, Norway, Italy, Ukraine and Tajikistan. And, before Katzberg’s breakthrough on Sunday, the previous North American to win a hammer-throwing medal was Lance Deal of the U.S. at Atlanta 1996.
Canada didn’t even send a men’s hammer thrower to the past two Olympics and, before that, Jim Steacy of Lethbridge, Alta., didn’t register a legal throw at London 2012 and finished 12th at Beijing 2008.
There were no Canadian men’s hammer throwers at Athens 2004, Sydney 2000, Atlanta 1996, Barcelona 1992, Seoul 1988 and Los Angeles 1984,while the country boycotted Moscow 1980. At Montreal 1976, Canada’s only competitor, Murray Keating, was 19th.
So call it the Bondarchuk effect. Megann VanderVliet, CEO of BC Athletics was adamant that North American hammer throwers owe a debt to the good doctor.
“Dr. B. has changed North American throwing,” she said in May. “It’s not just B.C., it’s how everyone is now approaching hammer in North America, especially on the women’s side. When I was throwing and (former Canadian champ Jenn Joyce) was throwing, 70 metres was a huge throw as a woman. Now, 80 metres is a huge throw.
“The fact that the sport is growing so quickly in such a short amount of time is a testament to Dr. B. bringing in these radical ideas. That’s really neat. It literally started in Kamloops.”