While waiting for these World Cups in Budapest 2023, Canada’s record in the hammer throw has been reduced to silver for Camryn Rogers at recent World Cups and an Olympic silver and bronze for men.… more than 100 years ago! With Walsh it was bronze in London 1908 and Duncan Gillis won silver in Stockholm 1912 in an early period of US dominance (he only let those two medals slip in the first four editions Olympics).

Well, 111 years later, the North American country surprised with the conquest of the two gold medals in the hammer throw with the very young Ethan Katzberg (21) and his compatriot Camryn Rogers, 24. It is curious that in such a vast country, they both come from neighboring towns in British Columbia since she was born in Richmond and he in Nanaimo. There are barely a few kilometers between them, but they are done by sea since the first is located on the mainland and the second on Vancouver Island.

Ethan Katzberg appeared in Budapest after self-proclaimed last year’s commonwealth champion in Birmingham and with the third best mark of the year (78.53) after a spectacular progression since he closed 2021 with a best mark of 69.75. But… why is he a hammer thrower?

Well, caste comes to the greyhound. A hammer and weight trainer, her father Bernie coached the older sister world champion, Jessica (she is 23 years old and managed to throw 47.42 with the big hammer at just 17 years old. Meanwhile, the “enormous” Ethan was playing basketball, but ended up being seduced by the device and put himself in the hands of his father (his mother Coralee is a financial adviser).

Everything changed when he decided to take it more seriously and travel 400 kilometers east to Kamploosa city also located in the immense British Columbia, straddling Vancouver and Calgary. And there he put himself back in the hands of Dylan Armstrongwho won bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games, silver at the 2011 Daegu World Cup and bronze at Moscow 2013, but in the shot put.

The duo worked perfectly and Katzberg already marveled in qualifying in Budapest, destroying his personal best of two and a half meters with a national record (81.18). And the next day, in the final, he showed a extraordinary competitive maturity for his 21 years and reigned with another Canadian record (81.25) and with five throws better than the mark with which he reached the World Cups plus a draw (80.18, 80.02, 79.82, 81.25 and 81.11). And to celebrate, he mingled with the public to follow the Hungarian National Day fireworks display along the Danube. Very crack!

At 1.98 meters, 107 kilos and that relaxed, casual look with his long hair, Katzberg made history partly by chance. The first, being born into a family of hammerheads so to speak. And the second, falling into the hands of Armstrong. In fact, Vancouver Island is similar in size to Catalonia and has less than 850,000 inhabitants. What would he do if he hadn’t entered the field?

Not content with that, Canada capped off its historic performance on Saturday with its first women’s hammer throw gold as well as gold. The author was Camryn Rogers, whose childhood was complicated for the separation of her parents when she was only three years old.

The world champion stayed with her mother Shari, a hairdresser in Richmond. “For many years it was her and me. Lots of struggles, lots of difficulties,” he commented on his childhood.. An environmental law student, he always competes with a silver pendant given to him by his first coach and he has always stood out since he “fell in love with the hammer” at the age of 13.

So… where is the coincidence in your case? Well, little Camryn had no interest in sports at all until one day a customer of his mother’s hairdresser told him that he might have conditions to play sports and between them they convinced her to go through the stadium. From there to gold in Budapest, there is a long road to success, like his historic fifth place at the Tokyo Games in the first final for a Canadian hammer or, like Ethan Katzberg, his gold medal at the Commonwealth last year.

Camryn Rogers, measuring 1.70, had just made history with her silver medal in Eugene and arrived with the second-best mark of the year (78.62), although far from American favorite Brooke Andersen (80.17), who fell with a fall in qualifying. In the final, the Canadian did not need to achieve a personal best with 77.72 to beat another American, Kassanavoid (76.36).

For sure, Camryn will already be back in Canada with a good amount of coffee beans, one of his great passions. And it is that each time he participates in competitions abroad, he takes this product with him to taste the differences between countries. She is passionate about coffee… and medals. But… would she be world hammer champion if that client of her mother Shari’s hairdresser hadn’t convinced her?