Hammer throw

Scottish hammer throw illustration from Frank R. Stockton's book Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy

Irish American John Flanagan in the hammer throw competition at the Summer Olympics 1908 in London

The exact origins of the Hammer throw are a mystery to modern historians. According to legend, at the Tailteann Games in Tara, Ireland as far back as 2000 BC the Celtic warrior Culchulainn took a chariot axle with a wheel still attached and spun it around and hurled it.[1] The wheel was later replaced by a rock with a wooden handle attached.[1] A sledgehammer began to be used for the sport in Scotland and England during the Middle Ages.[1] In current times, the hammer has changed to the more modern 7.26 kg ball attached to a wire and a handle, but the Scottish Highland Games still feature the older style of hammer throw with the rock and the solid wood handle. Today the Hammer throw is one of four throwing events featured in the Olympics alongside discus, shot put, and javelin.

The contemporary version of the hammer throw

While the men's hammer throw has been part of the Olympics since 1900, the International Association of Athletics Federations did not start ratifying women's marks until 1995. Women's hammer throw was first included in the Olympics at the 2000 summer games in Sydney, Australia after having been included in the World Championships a year earlier.

Athlete practicing the hammer throw event

The men's hammer weighs 16 pounds (7.26 kg) and measures 3 feet 11+3⁄4 inches (121.3 cm) in length, and the women's hammer weighs 4 kg (8.82 lb) and 3 ft 11 in (119.4 cm) in length.[2] Like the other throwing events, the competition is decided by who can throw the implement the farthest.

The throwing motion starts with the thrower swinging the hammer back-and-forth about two times to generate momentum. The thrower then makes three, four or (rarely) five full rotations using a complex heel-toe foot movement, spinning the hammer in a circular path and increasing its angular velocity with each rotation. Rather than spinning the hammer horizontally, it is instead spun in a plane that angles up towards the direction in which it will be launched. The thrower releases the hammer as its velocity is upward and toward the target.[3]

Thrower inside a hammer cage, with the markings for the throwing circle and the throwing sector visible on the ground (women's final at the 2017 European Athletics U23 Championships)

Throws are made from a throwing circle. The thrower is not allowed to step outside the throwing circle before the hammer has landed and may only enter and exit from the rear of the throwing circle. The hammer must land within a 34.92º throwing sector that is centered on the throwing circle. The sector angle was chosen because it provides a sector whose bounds are easy to measure and lay out on a field (10 metres out from the center of the ring, 6 metres across).[4][5] A violation of the rules results in a foul and the throw not being counted.

As of 2023 the men's hammer world record is held by Yuriy Sedykh, who threw 86.74 m (284 ft 6+3⁄4 in) at the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, West Germany on 30 August. The world record for the women's hammer is held by Anita Włodarczyk, who threw 82.98 m (272 ft 2+3⁄4 in) during the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial on 28 August 2016. Sedykh's 1986 world record has been noted for its longevity, and for dating from "a time when track and field was starting to realize the scale of performance-enhancing drug use" (AP).[6] According to Russian doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, Sedykh was a heavy user of steroids, which Sedykh denied.[6]

The throwing distance depends on the velocity and height at which the hammer is released, but also on other factors that are not under the athlete's control.[7] In particular, earth's rotation affects it via the location's latitude (due to the centrifugal force, the hammer will fly a bit further in a location closer to the equator) and to a lesser extent also via the throw's azimuth (i.e. its compass direction, due to Coriolis forces).[7] According to a 2023 study, such effects are large enough that the top 20 world-record rankings for both men and women at the time could somewhat change if they were adjusted for latitude and azimuth.[7]

Hammer throwing has been described as involving "inherent danger [...]. Athletes, coaches, and spectators participating in the event are at risk; steel hammers [...] are hurled through the air at great speeds, [travel] far distances, and [are] sometimes difficult to spot in flight."[8] For example, hammer throws resulted in four deaths in Europe in 2000 alone,[9] and have caused deaths and permanent brain damage injuries in the United States too.[8]

To mitigate such risks, a C-shaped "hammer cage" was introduced, which is built around the throwing circle, preventing the hammer from flying off in unwanted directions.[8] In 2004, the IAAF changed its rules to increase the mandatory height of hammer cages to 10m and reduce their "danger zone" angle to around 53°.[8] The change also moved the cage gates further away from the throwing circle, thus reducing the risk of a misdirected hammer bouncing back on the thrower.[10]

• List of hammer throwers
• Keg-tossing

• IAAF list of hammer-throw records in XML
• HammerThrow.org (Information about the event, coaching tips and resources, ...)
• Statistics
• Hammer Throw History
• World Athletics Hammer Throw