A history-making medal helped sway voters selecting who would win The Canadian Press male athlete of the award in 2024.
Hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg earned the honour for his golden efficiency on the Paris Olympics. He’s Canada’s first Olympic champion within the occasion and earned the nation’s first hammer throw medal since 1912.
Katzberg earned 17 of the 56 votes forged by sports activities editors, producers and reporters throughout Canada to narrowly beat Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who received the award final yr and picked up 14 votes, and Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid who had 13 votes.
“That is unimaginable,” Katzberg mentioned of the feat. “These are two extremely attaining athletes who’ve completed extremely nicely of their respective sports activities. That is actually cool.”
WATCH l Katzberg wins historic gold medal at Paris Olympics:
Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B.C., claimed the gold medal together with his first throw of 84.12 on the Olympic hammer throw ultimate on the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games.
The Canadian Press started recognizing female and male athletes of the yr in 1932.
Different earlier male winners embody hockey gamers Sidney Crosby (2007, 2009, 2010) and Carey Worth (2015), basketball participant Steve Nash (2002, 2005, 2006), and fellow observe and subject athletes Donovan Bailey (1996), Andre De Grasse (2016) and Damian Warner (2021).
“There will not be many hammer throwers on this planet. It is an almost-obsolete sport, however Katzberg confirmed what years of lonely dedication can do,” Phil King of The Globe and Mail wrote. “He was an inspiration to athletes across the globe to maintain attempting, irrespective of how obscure your sport is.”
Attending to the highest of the rostrum was an all-encompassing endeavour this yr, Katzberg mentioned.
“It was 150 per cent dedication to Paris, proper? There wasn’t a variety of concentrate on anything,” he mentioned. “After which, having that one second to indicate all of the work we put in, and every part going nice, every part connecting at one time, it was a variety of feelings, a variety of vitality. It was an extremely particular second.”
The 22-year-old from Nanaimo, B.C., was a dominant power within the Olympic ultimate.
His first throw stood up because the winner, measuring a whopping 84.12 metres. No different thrower surpassed the 80-metre mark.
The space was simply shy of the private finest 84.38 metres he threw on the Kip Keino Traditional in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 20.
Katzberg’s success — mixed with that of fellow Canadian Camryn Rogers, who received Olympic gold within the girls’s hammer throw — sparked a rising curiosity within the sport throughout the nation.
“That places a smile on my face,” he mentioned. “That is one thing I do not assume lots of people notice, that a variety of athletes notice, that they will have that influence on the youthful technology. It does not matter what scale. That is an unimaginable feeling.”
WATCH l #TheMoment Katzberg obtained a golden welcome:
Ethan Katzberg, Canada’s first Olympic gold medalist in hammer throw, recounts the second his hometown of Nanaimo, B.C. threw a celebration in his honour.
Three days later after his Olympic win, Katzberg was again coaching in Slovakia. He returned to Paris for the closing ceremonies after being named a flag-bearer alongside record-breaking swimmer and CP feminine athlete of the yr Summer time McIntosh.
The duo have been straightforward to identify, partially due to the thrower’s six-foot-seven body, his distinctive moustache and his shoulder-length hair.
“To stroll into the stadium holding the flag with, clearly, one other very achieved athlete and sort of have a second the place I am like, `OK, that was my Olympic expertise,’ I sort of might take all of it in,” Katzberg mentioned. “And that was actually particular to me, to sort of simply perceive what simply occurred.”
There was a slight mishap on the best way into the packed Stade de France, he admitted.
“Strolling into the stadium, we have been waving the flag and there was a volunteer we have been following, and I feel I by chance hit him with the flag a couple of times,” he mentioned. “We have been simply new to wave the flag correctly. In order that was the dry run, I suppose.”
After attaining his Olympic dream, Katzberg took a month off in September. He did not compete. He did not prepare. He merely frolicked with family members and tried to recharge bodily and emotionally.
“It is fascinating since you work towards one thing and it is sort of a little bit of a stress cooker of vitality,” Katzberg mentioned. “You construct so lengthy in direction of this one second, after which you might have that second, after which it is like, `OK, that is all I have been fascinated with for therefore lengthy. Now, what do I do afterwards?’
“So nonetheless sort of figuring that out, to be trustworthy with you. I am simply sort of taking it day-to-day. I’ve obtained such an unimaginable ardour for hammer throw, it is simply at all times there. And I am pushing as laborious as I can proper now to sort of get that feeling again that I had previous to Paris.”
Over the previous a number of months, Katzberg has shared that zeal with hundreds of scholars, athletes and supporters. At varied celebrations and meets, he is given folks an opportunity to carry and take photos with the gold medal that was draped round his neck in Paris.
The {hardware} will someday be added to a particular show case, however for now, Katzberg is savouring the enjoyment it brings others.
“It is sort of a method to make it tangible. The quantity of people who find themselves in a position to truly maintain on to at least one or put on it or no matter is kind of small. So sharing that with them, I actually get pleasure from that,” he mentioned. “Doing a chat, and passing it across the room, and everybody will get to take a photograph with it and share that second with you, that is fairly particular.”
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