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After winning a world title and Olympic gold, hammer thrower Camryn Rogers might not have anything left to prove — but she says she still has a lot left to accomplish.
The 26-year-old from Richmond, B.C., doesn’t just want to defend her titles, she wants to help grow the sport itself.
“I feel like every time I step into the circle, I want to show what I’ve been working on and what [I’ve] been training for,” Rogers said from her home, near her training base in Berkeley, Calif. “I feel like I still have so much more to give. The sport has already done so much for me — like, the sport owes me nothing, but I owe the sport everything.
“And because of that, I want to be able to give as much of myself to it [and] the community as I can.”
That community is growing thanks in large part to the success of Rogers and her fellow Canadian Olympic and world champion in men’s hammer throw, Ethan Katzberg. Their achievements have increased visibility of the sport in Canada and presents it as an option for other young athletes.
While this hammer throw dominance has seemed to be an overnight success, it’s actually been years in the making. Rogers has been involved in hammer throw for nearly half her life, first picking up the implement when she was 13, before moving on to train with coach Mo Saatara at the University of California, Berkeley.
“After working together [with Saatara] for eight years, I feel very lucky to be working with someone who knows me so well,” Rogers said. “He likes to joke that he can tell how my practice is going to go, based on how I walk toward him in the morning.”
Rogers announced her arrival on the international scene when she captured world championship silver in 2022. She set a new Canadian record with a throw of 78.62 metres in May of 2023, just months before winning gold at worlds. The whirlwind of success continued last summer when she won Olympic gold in Paris.
“Things like this don’t happen overnight. It takes laying a foundation and building upon it for years and years and years to really see it come to fruition. I think we’re seeing all of that effort in that time really find its peak now,” Rogers said. “I know that we will continue to grow and have more people come after us and build upon what we’ve done as well, which is exciting.”
That next wave of athletes might include the ones reaching out to Rogers on social media.
“Something that’s really, really touched my heart is I’ve gotten a few people who have DM’d [direct messaged] me on Instagram and been like, ‘hey, we saw you compete at worlds or the Olympics and we were so curious and I was able to get my daughter into track and field, and now she’s throwing,'” Rogers said. “I feel like it made my heart just burst.
“[Hammer throw] has completely changed my life. And knowing that it has a potential to do that for so many other people now in our country and so many young kids and especially young girls, like it just kind of makes me teary-eyed.”
Field events missing from new circuits
With new track leagues starting to sprout up, field events have been largely sidelined. The new Grand Slam Track, before its cancellation this week, didn’t include field events. Athlos, the female-only pro track and field league, added long jump to their 2025 meet this fall after running the 2024 edition without field events.
Rogers is happy to see track athletes thriving, but she laments the disrespect shown to field events and the missed opportunities that come with it.
“When you allow more people to see it, and love it, and become interested in it, you not only give those people the chance to become bigger fans and find a new love for it, but you also give the athletes in those events the opportunity to dedicate more of themselves to it.
“I think there’s a lot of frustration. But it comes from a place of love, because we see how great our event is and we want other people to be able to see it.”
The Paris 2024 Olympic champion discusses her season so far, expectations leading into worlds, and what else she hopes to accomplish in the sport.
Rogers has seven competitions remaining in her season before the world championships in Tokyo in September. In the limited free time available to her, Rogers is preparing for life after hammer throw by working toward law school. However, that goal has still managed to intersect with sports.
“I love [hammer throw], but I know at some point it will come to an end, and I want to be able to prepare for that in the best way possible,” Rogers said. “I’ve had some really cool experiences. I actually was able to advocate for federal legislation for name, image and likeness [NIL] in Washington, D.C. to a bunch of senators and congressional staffers back in April for student athletes.”
Following that trip, Rogers began her athletics season and picked up wins at two of the three events she entered — the Mt. SAC Relays and the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi.
Those wins came from throws approaching her personal best — 78.14m and 77.93m — and she’ll look to build upon that at her next competition on Tuesday in Turku, Finland, at the Paavo Nurmii Games (12 p.m. ET, CBCSports.ca, CBC Gem).
Camryn Rogers of Richmond, B.C.’s winning throw of 77.93 was enough to capture Saturday’s hammer throw title at the World Athletics Continental Tour stop in Nairobi, Kenya.
“I’m really happy, I’ve had two of my best throws ever. I think we’re building up to something really, really good, some really far throws,” Rogers said.
The reigning champ is also still working to grow a bigger hammer throw community, saying that any young athlete interested in the sport should DM her if they have any questions about getting involved.
“To see those messages that people send me … I think that it just shows that we’re moving in the right direction in this sport. To know that we can have that direct impact on people and their sporting careers and their journeys,” Rogers said.
“It just feels like success is being able to leave the sport a little bit better than you found it.”
