Camryn Rogers

Camryn Alexis Rogers, track and field athlete (born 7 June 1999 in Richmond, BC). Camryn Rogers won a silver medal in women’s hammer throw at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, making her the first Canadian woman to medal in a WAC field event. She then won gold at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, making her only the second Canadian woman to win a WAC gold medal. She also won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, as well as three NCAA titles. She set the Canadian record in women’s hammer throw (78.62 m) in 2023. At the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris, Rogers won gold with a throw of 76.97 m. She is the first Canadian woman since 1928 to win Olympic gold in an individual track and field event.

Early Life and Athletic Career

Camryn Rogers was raised by her mother, Shari, a hairdresser who was a single mom. Camryn’s parents divorced when she was three. She has been estranged from her father since then. Shari supported her daughter’s athletic endeavours and travelled regularly with Camryn to watch her compete.

Rogers started in athletics at age 12. She joined the Kajaks Track and Field Club in Richmond in 2012. (See also Diane Clement.) Her coach, Richard Collier, asked her to throw a hammer. “I had no clue how to do it, but he showed me,” she told Mark Booth of the Richmond News. “My first throw actually wasn’t that bad and my interest was piqued. Everything changed that day.”

Rogers’ first notable achievement was winning the gold medal in the women’s hammer throw at the BC High School Track and Field Championship in 2014. A year later, she broke the Canadian youth and junior hammer throw records. In 2016, she won in hammer throw and shot put at the U20 Canadian Championship.

In 2017, Rogers had a breakout track and field season. While attending R.A. McMath Secondary School, she won gold in the women’s shot put and hammer throw at the BC High School Track and Field Championship in Langley. She also won gold in the U20 hammer throw at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in Ottawa and gold at the Pan American U20 Championship in Trujillo, Peru.

NCAA Accomplishments

Camryn Rogers began attending the University of California, Berkeley in 2018. In addition to winning two medals at the IAAF World U20 Championships and setting the Canadian record, Rogers had several notable hammer throw accomplishments.

She set the Canadian U20 record (65.61 m) at the NCAA Brutus Hamilton Invitational in Berkeley. She won gold at the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, with a throw of 64.9 m. She won three NCAA titles and posted the top 12 hammer throws in NCAA history, including a throw of 77.67 m at the 2022 NCAA Track & Field Championships.

International Competition, 2022–24

At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, Camryn Rogers won gold with a throw of 74.08 m. On 26 May 2023, Rogers set the Canadian record in women’s hammer throw with a throw of 78.62 m. It was the fifth best throw ever by a woman.

At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Rogers won gold with a throw of 77.22. She became only the second Canadian woman (after hurdler Perdita Felicien in 2003) to win a WAC gold medal. At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in May 2024, Rogers won gold and set a new Diamond League record with a throw of 77.76 m.

Paris Olympics

Heading into the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris, the reigning world champion Rogers was favoured to win gold. In the final, American thrower Annette Echikunwoke took the lead on her third attempt with a throw of 75.48 m. After clipping the net on her fourth attempt, Rogers had two attempts left and made the fifth one count, throwing it for 76.97 m. After her victory, an emotional Rogers praised the contributions of her mother and her coach, Mo Saatara.

Rogers became the first Canadian woman to win Olympic gold in an individual track and field event since high jumper Ethel Catherwood in 1928. Canada also topped the podium in men’s hammer throw in Paris, as Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, BC, won gold with a throw of 81.25 m.

Personal Life

Camryn Rogers earned her master’s in Education, specializing in Cultural Studies of Sport, from the University of California, Berkeley in 2023. She began working as a special education advocate in September 2023.