# Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's hammer throw

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.
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 84.12 m (275 ft 11 in). 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 Olympics :
| Record | Athlete (Nation) | Distance (m) | Location | Date |
| World record | Yuriy Sedykh (URS) | 86.74 | Stuttgart, West Germany | 30 August 1986 |
| Olympic record | Sergey Litvinov (URS) | 84.80 | Seoul, South Korea | 26 September 1988 |
| World leading | Ethan Katzberg (CAN) | 84.38 | Nairobi, Kenya | 20 April 2024 |
Area records before the 2024 Summer Olympics :
| Area Record | Athlete (Nation) | Distance (m) |
| Africa (records) | Mostafa El Gamel (EGY) | 81.27 |
| Asia (records) | Koji Murofushi (JPN) | 84.86 |
| Europe (records) | Yuriy Sedykh (URS) | 86.74 WR |
| North, Central America and Caribbean (records) | Ethan Katzberg (CAN) | 84.38 |
| Oceania (records) | Stuart Rendell (AUS) | 79.29 |
| South America (records) | Wagner Domingos (BRA) | 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.

## 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. Qualification: 77.00 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the final.
| Rank | Group | Athlete | Nation | 1 | 2 | 3 | Distance | Notes |
| 1 | B | Ethan Katzberg | Canada | X | 79.93 | | 79.93 | Q |
| 2 | A | Rowan Hamilton | Canada | 76.97 | X | 77.78 | 77.78 | Q, PB |
| 3 | A | Mykhaylo Kokhan | Ukraine | X | 77.42 | | 77.42 | Q |
| 4 | B | Rudy Winkler | United States | 77.29 | | | 77.29 | Q |
| 5 | B | Eivind Henriksen | Norway | X | 77.14 | | 77.14 | Q, SB |
| 6 | B | Bence Halász | Hungary | 76.84 | 72.89 | 76.90 | 76.90 | q |
| 7 | A | Yann Chaussinand | France | X | 75.43 | 76.86 | 76.86 | q |
| 8 | A | Thomas Mardal | Norway | X | 75.43 | 76.78 | 76.78 | q |
| 9 | B | Pawel Fajdek | Poland | X | X | 76.56 | 76.56 | q |
| 10 | A | Wojciech Nowicki | Poland | X | 76.32 | 75.50 | 76.32 | q |
| 11 | B | Christos Frantzeskakis | Greece | 75.53 | 73.94 | 74.21 | 75.53 | q |
| 12 | B | Merlin Hummel | Germany | 75.25 | X | X | 75.25 | q |
| 13 | B | Adam Keenan | Canada | X | 69.97 | 74.45 | 74.45 | SB |
| 14 | B | Denzel Comenentia | Netherlands | X | 72.17 | 74.31 | 74.31 | |
| 15 | A | Ragnar Carlsson | Sweden | 72.72 | 73.96 | 73.94 | 73.96 | |
| 16 | B | Volodymyr Myslyvčuk | Czech Republic | 73.84 | X | X | 73.84 | |
| 17 | A | Matija Gregurić | Croatia | 71.48 | 72.94 | 73.69 | 73.69 | |
| 18 | A | Serghei Marghiev | Moldova | 73.46 | X | 70.73 | 73.46 | |
| 19 | A | Wang Qi | China | 65.43 | 72.52 | 69.60 | 72.52 | |
| 20 | B | Gabriel Kehr | Chile | 72.28 | 72.12 | 72.31 | 72.31 | |
| 21 | B | Dániel Rába | Hungary | 71.37 | X | 72.29 | 72.29 | |
| 22 | B | Diego del Real | Mexico | 69.39 | 72.10 | X | 72.10 | |
| 23 | B | Joaquín Gómez | Argentina | X | 64.94 | 72.10 | 72.10 | |
| 24 | A | Humberto Mansilla | Chile | 71.75 | 71.83 | 70.81 | 71.83 | |
| 25 | A | Donát Varga | Hungary | 69.95 | 71.65 | 69.71 | 71.65 | |
| 26 | B | Jerome Vega | Puerto Rico | 69.19 | 71.61 | 70.44 | 71.61 | |
| 27 | B | Özkan Baltacı | Turkey | X | 71.40 | 71.24 | 71.40 | |
| 28 | A | Sören Klose | Germany | 71.20 | X | X | 71.20 | |
| 29 | A | Mihail Anastasakis | Greece | X | 70.14 | X | 70.14 | |
| 30 | A | Mostafa El Gamel | Egypt | 68.12 | 68.65 | 70.09 | 70.09 | |
| 31 | A | Patrik Hájek | Czech Republic | 67.96 | 68.45 | 68.80 | 68.80 | |
| | A | Daniel Haugh | United States | X | X | X | NM | |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Nation | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Distance | Notes |
| | Ethan Katzberg | Canada | 84.12 | X | 82.28 | X | X | X | 84.12 | |
| | Bence Halász | Hungary | 77.58 | 78.84 | 79.97 | 79.94 | 77.66 | 79.82 | 79.97 | |
| | Mykhaylo Kokhan | Ukraine | 78.54 | 79.39 | X | 78.17 | 76.53 | 79.24 | 79.39 | |
| 4 | Eivind Henriksen | Norway | 76.45 | 79.18 | X | X | 76.11 | X | 79.18 | SB |
| 5 | Pawel Fajdek | Poland | 78.01 | 77.22 | 78.57 | 78.80 | X | 76.64 | 78.80 | |
| 6 | Rudy Winkler | United States | 77.92 | X | X | X | 71.90 | X | 77.92 | |
| 7 | Wojciech Nowicki | Poland | 77.42 | 77.28 | 76.75 | 77.03 | X | 75.92 | 77.42 | |
| 8 | Yann Chaussinand | France | X | X | 77.38 | 77.15 | X | X | 77.38 | |
| 9 | Rowan Hamilton | Canada | 76.59 | X | X | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | 76.59 | |
| 10 | Merlin Hummel | Germany | 74.85 | 76.03 | X | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | 76.03 | |
| 11 | Thomas Mardal | Norway | 74.25 | 73.68 | X | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | 74.25 | |
| 12 | Christos Frantzeskakis | Greece | X | 73.34 | X | Did not advance | Did not advance | Did not advance | 73.34 | |