Hammer throw at the Olympics

Hammer throw
at the Olympic Games
Hammer throw; at the Olympic Games
	The 1908 hammer throw competition
Overview
Sport	Athletics
Gender	Men and women
Years held	Men: 1900 – 2020 ; Women: 2000 – 2020
Olympic record
Men	84.80m Sergey Litvinov (1988)
Women	82.29m Anita Włodarczyk (2016)
Reigning champion
Men	Wojciech Nowicki (POL)
Women	Anita Włodarczyk (POL)

The hammer throw at the Summer Olympics is one of four track and field throwing events held at the multi-sport event. The men's hammer throw has been present on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900, becoming the third Olympic throws event after the shot put and discus throw. The women's event was a much later addition, being first contested at the 2000 Olympics.

The Olympic records are 84.80 m (278 ft 2+1⁄2 in) for men, set by Sergey Litvinov in 1988, and 82.29 m (269 ft 11+3⁄4 in) for women, set by Anita Włodarczyk in 2016.

Medalists

Men

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Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1900 Paris details	John Flanagan United States	Truxtun Hare United States	Josiah McCracken United States
1904 St. Louis details	John Flanagan United States	John DeWitt United States	Ralph Rose United States
1908 London details	John Flanagan United States	Matt McGrath United States	Con Walsh Canada
1912 Stockholm details	Matt McGrath United States	Duncan Gillis Canada	Clarence Childs United States
1920 Antwerp details	Patrick Ryan United States	Carl Johan Lind Sweden	Basil Bennett United States
1924 Paris details	Fred Tootell United States	Matt McGrath United States	Malcolm Nokes Great Britain
1928 Amsterdam details	Pat O'Callaghan Ireland	Ossian Skiöld Sweden	Edmund Black United States
1932 Los Angeles details	Pat O'Callaghan Ireland	Ville Pörhölä Finland	Peter Zaremba United States
1936 Berlin details	Karl Hein Germany	Erwin Blask Germany	Fred Warngård Sweden
1948 London details	Imre Németh Hungary	Ivan Gubijan Yugoslavia	Robert Bennett United States
1952 Helsinki details	József Csermák Hungary	Karl Storch Germany	Imre Németh Hungary
1956 Melbourne details	Hal Connolly United States	Mikhail Krivonosov Soviet Union	Anatoliy Samotsvetov Soviet Union
1960 Rome details	Vasily Rudenkov Soviet Union	Gyula Zsivótzky Hungary	Tadeusz Rut Poland
1964 Tokyo details	Romuald Klim Soviet Union	Gyula Zsivótzky Hungary	Uwe Beyer United Team of Germany
1968 Mexico City details	Gyula Zsivótzky Hungary	Romuald Klim Soviet Union	Lázár Lovász Hungary
1972 Munich details	Anatoliy Bondarchuk Soviet Union	Jochen Sachse East Germany	Vasiliy Khmelevskiy Soviet Union
1976 Montreal details	Yuriy Sedykh Soviet Union	Aleksey Spiridonov Soviet Union	Anatoliy Bondarchuk Soviet Union
1980 Moscow details	Yuriy Sedykh Soviet Union	Sergey Litvinov Soviet Union	Jüri Tamm Soviet Union
1984 Los Angeles details	Juha Tiainen Finland	Karl-Hans Riehm West Germany	Klaus Ploghaus West Germany
1988 Seoul details	Sergey Litvinov Soviet Union	Yuriy Sedykh Soviet Union	Jüri Tamm Soviet Union
1992 Barcelona details	Andrey Abduvaliyev Unified Team	Igor Astapkovich Unified Team	Igor Nikulin Unified Team
1996 Atlanta details	Balázs Kiss Hungary	Lance Deal United States	Oleksandr Krykun Ukraine
2000 Sydney details	Szymon Ziółkowski Poland	Nicola Vizzoni Italy	Igor Astapkovich Belarus
2004 Athens details	Koji Murofushi Japan	Not awarded^[1]	Not awarded^[1]
2008 Beijing details	Primož Kozmus Slovenia	Vadim Devyatovskiy Belarus^[2]	Ivan Tsikhan Belarus^[2]
2012 London details	Krisztián Pars Hungary	Primož Kozmus Slovenia	Koji Murofushi Japan
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Dilshod Nazarov Tajikistan	Ivan Tsikhan Belarus	Wojciech Nowicki Poland
2020 Tokyo details	Wojciech Nowicki Poland	Eivind Henriksen Norway	Paweł Fajdek Poland
2024 Paris details

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	John Flanagan	United States (USA)	1900–1908	3	0	0	3
2	Yuriy Sedykh	Soviet Union (URS)	1976–1988	2	1	0	3
3	Pat O'Callaghan	Ireland (IRL)	1928–1932	2	0	0	2
4	Matt McGrath	United States (USA)	1908–1924	1	2	0	3
4	Gyula Zsivótzky	Hungary (HUN)	1960–1968	1	2	0	3
6	Romuald Klim	Soviet Union (URS)	1964–1968	1	1	0	2
	Sergey Litvinov	Soviet Union (URS)	1980–1988	1	1	0	2
	Primož Kozmus	Slovenia (SLO)	2008–2012	1	1	0	2
9	Imre Németh	Hungary (HUN)	1948–1952	1	0	1	2
	Anatoliy Bondarchuk	Soviet Union (URS)	1972–1976	1	0	1	2
	Koji Murofushi	Japan (JPN)	2004–2012	1	0	1	2
	Wojciech Nowicki	Poland (POL)	2016–2020	1	0	1	2
13	Igor Astapkovich	Unified Team (EUN) Belarus (BLR)	1992–2000	0	1	1	2
13	Ivan Tsikhan	Belarus (BLR)	2008–2016	0	1	1	2
15	Jüri Tamm	Soviet Union (URS)	1980–1988	0	0	2	2

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	7	5	7	19
2	Soviet Union (URS)	6	5	5	16
3	Hungary (HUN)	5	2	2	9
4	Poland (POL)	2	0	3	5
5	Ireland (IRL)	2	0	0	2
6	Germany (GER)^[nb]	1	2	1	4
7	Unified Team (EUN)	1	1	1	3
8	Finland (FIN)	1	1	0	2
8	Slovenia (SLO)	1	1	0	2
10	Japan (JPN)	1	0	1	2
11	Tajikistan (TJK)	1	0	0	1
12	Belarus (BLR)	0	2	2	4
13	Sweden (SWE)	0	2	1	3
14	Canada (CAN)	0	1	1	2
14	West Germany (FRG)	0	1	1	2
16	East Germany (GDR)	0	1	0	1
	Italy (ITA)	0	1	0	1
	Yugoslavia (YUG)	0	1	0	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	1	0	1
20	Great Britain (GBR)	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine (UKR)	0	0	1	1

^nb The German total includes teams both competing as Germany and the United Team of Germany, but not East or West Germany.

Women

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Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2000 Sydney details	Kamila Skolimowska Poland	Olga Kuzenkova Russia	Kirsten Münchow Germany
2004 Athens details	Olga Kuzenkova Russia	Yipsi Moreno Cuba	Yunaika Crawford Cuba
2008 Beijing details	Yipsi Moreno Cuba	Zhang Wenxiu China	Manuela Montebrun France
2012 London details	Anita Włodarczyk Poland	Betty Heidler Germany	Zhang Wenxiu China
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Anita Włodarczyk Poland	Zhang Wenxiu China	Sophie Hitchon Great Britain
2020 Tokyo details	Anita Włodarczyk Poland	Wang Zheng China	Malwina Kopron Poland
2024 Paris details

Multiple medalists

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Olympics	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Anita Włodarczyk	Poland (POL)	2012–2020	3	0	0	3
2	Olga Kuzenkova	Russia (RUS)	2000–2004	1	1	0	2
2	Yipsi Moreno	Cuba (CUB)	2004–2008	1	1	0	2
4	Zhang Wenxiu	China (CHN)	2008–2016	0	2	1	3

Medalists by country

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Poland (POL)	4	0	1	5
2	Cuba (CUB)	1	1	1	3
3	Russia (RUS)	1	1	0	2
4	China (CHN)	0	3	1	4
5	Germany (GER)	0	1	1	2
6	France (FRA)	0	0	1	1
6	Great Britain (GBR)	0	0	1	1

Intercalated Games

The 1906 Intercalated Games were held in Athens and Iloilo and at the time were officially recognised as part of the Olympic Games series, with the intention being to hold a games in Greece and Philippines in two-year intervals between the internationally held Olympics. However, this plan realized its dream and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later decided to approve these games as part of the official Olympic series and highly recommended it for those countries which has yet to win a gold medal or at least a medal. Some sports historians also continue to treat the results of these games as part of the Olympic canon.^[3]

Martin Sheridan, the Olympic champion in 1904 and 1908, won the 1906 title as well. A 1904 medallist, Nikolaos Georgantas, was runner-up, while Verner Järvinen took the bronze medal in addition to the Greek-style event gold medal he won at the 1906 Games.^[4]

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1906 Athens details	Martin Sheridan (USA)	Nikolaos Georgantas (GRE)	Verner Järvinen (FIN)

Non-canonical Olympic events

In addition to the main 1904 Olympic men's hammer throw, a handicap competition was held that year. The reigning Olympic champion John Flanagan won the event with a throw of 46.75 m with a zero handicap. Albert Johnson, sixth in the main event, came second with 46.20 m off a 30 ft handicap. James Mitchel, a weight throw medallist in 1904, won the bronze with 46.16 m given a 23 ft handicap.^[5]

These events are no longer considered part of the official Olympic history of the hammer throw or the athletics programme in general. Consequently, medals from these competitions have not been assigned to nations on the all-time medal tables.^[5]