Ethan Katzberg

Early Life

Ethan Katzberg is the youngest of two children of Bernie and Coralee Katzberg. Bernie was a facility manager, while Coralee is a financial advisor. Bernie was very active with the Nanaimo Track and Field Club and coached both Ethan and his older sister, Jessica. Ethan was initially involved in basketball but showed an interest in the hammer throw when he saw his father coaching his sister.

High School Athletics

At age 15, Ethan Katzberg won the gold medal in hammer throw at the BC Athletics Track & Field Championships Jamboree with a throw of 56.38 m. This qualified him for the 2017 National Youth Track and Field Championships in Brandon, Manitoba. He won gold there with a throw of 61.54 m. In 2018 and 2019, Ethan won back-to-back BC High School Sports Provincial Championships representing John Barsby Secondary School in Nanaimo.

International Competition, 2021–24

After graduating from high school in 2019, Ethan Katzberg moved to Kamloops, where he was coached by Dylan Armstrong, an Olympic bronze medallist in shot put. In 2023, Armstrong told the Toronto Star that the six-foot-six Katzberg was “a skinny basketball player when I got him. What really stuck out, obviously, was his height and his speed. That’s a rare combination. It’s hard to find a fast, tall, coordinated guy that may have some interest in throwing.”

At the 2021 World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, Katzberg qualified for the final. Then, at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, he had a personal best throw of 76.36 m to win the silver medal.

Katzberg won his first Canadian Track and Field Championships title in Langley, BC, in 2023 with a throw of 78.73 m. He qualified for the World Athletics Championships by reaching the qualifying standard of 78 m.

Katzberg’s gold medal throw of 81.25 m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest was noteworthy. Not only did he set a Canadian record, but he beat Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki in the process. Nowicki, the reigning Olympic champion and a five-time world champion, was the heavy favourite. But he had to settle for silver with a throw of 81.02 m. Katzberg was the first Canadian ever to win a WAC gold medal in the hammer throw. He was also the youngest medallist in the event, at the age of 21 years, four months and 15 days.

At the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Katzberg won gold in the men’s hammer throw with a throw of 80.96 m — a Pan Am Games record.

On 20 April 2024, Katzberg broke his own Canadian record with a gold medal throw of 84.38 m at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya. It was the longest hammer throw by any athlete since 2008, and the ninth best hammer throw of all time.

Paris Olympics

Heading into the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris, the reigning world champion Katzberg was heavily favoured to win gold. He did so in dominant fashion, throwing a distance of 84.12 m on the first of his six attempts in the final — just shy of the Olympic record of 84.80 m. Katzberg’s coach, Dylan Armstong, told the Canadian Press afterwards that it was all part of the plan. “Before coming in here I told him, he knows he can throw that far and I told him to try and take control right away so that everyone may tense up a bit and I think they did, obviously.” No other competitor broke the 80 m barrier. Katzberg also recorded the second-longest throw, with 82.28 m. Hungary’s Bence Halász won silver with a throw of 79.97 m, while Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan won bronze with 79.39 m.

Katzberg became only the third Canadian athlete to medal in hammer throw, after Duncan Gillis won silver in 1912 and Con Walsh won bronze in 1908. Two days after Katzberg’s victory, Camryn Rogers of Richmond, BC, won gold in the women’s hammer throw.

In late December 2024, Katzberg received the Lionel Conacher Award as Canada's male athlete of the year.

(See also Canadian Gold Medal Winners at Olympic Summer Games.)