Golden Girl: Cal's Camryn Rogers Wins Hammer at Paris Olympics

The 25-year-old Canadian meets expecations of experts who unanimously projected her as the winner.

Camryn Rogers celebrates with fellow medal winners / Photo by James Lang, USA Today

Camryn Rogers has been winning major hammer throw championships since she was a teen-ager. On Tuesday, she got the big one.

The 25-year-old Cal grad captured the Olympic gold medal to go with her victory at the World Championships a year ago, giving the Golden Bears their first individual track and field gold at the Olympics in 76 years.

Rogers, the Canadian who won three NCAA titles, won with a throw of 252 feet, 6 inches (76.97 meters) to become the first female Cal athlete to win any Olympic medal in the sport. 

"It's a whirlwind of emotions, but the second the competition was over, I felt like I just went into shock," Rogers told CBC Sports' Devin Heroux. "I looked up, and I saw my coach and my family, who came all the way here from Richmond, B.C., from New Zealand, from California, and I just felt nothing but love and support and the fact I could share this moment with them is what makes it special for me."

In tears afterward, Rogers got hugs from all of her rivals in the field and from her long-time coach at Cal and since, Mo Saatara.

Camryn Rogers embraces coach Mo Saatara / Instagram

Cal hadn’t won an individual gold medal in track and field since Guinn Smith took the pole vault gold at the 1948 London Games. Rogers joins Smith and 400-meter specialist Archie Williams (1936) as the Golden Bears’ only individual gold-medal winners in track and field.

Rogers had to battle from behind twice to win three years after placing fifth at the Tokyo Olympics.

She held the early lead with a first-round throw of 243-1 (74.11 meters) before China’s Jie Zhou, 21, inched in front with her second-round effort of 243-8 (74.27).

Rogers regained the lead with a third-round effort of 244-4 (74.47) but that didn’t last long. American  Annette Nneka Echikunwoke, 28, a surprise winner at the U.S. trials, delivered a season-best throw of 247-8 (75.48) to move into the top spot after three rounds. 

Rogers drew close to Echikunwoke with a fourth-round throw of 247-6 (75.44) then broke through with her winning mark on her fifth try. That throw still short of Rogers’ personal best of 257-11 (78.62) that ranks her fifth on the all-time world list, but it was farther than either silver-medalist Echikunwoke or bronze winner Zhao have ever gone.

"Coming to this moment, getting to that fifth round, it's a moment of do or die," Rogers told the Canadian Press. "To be able to do it when it counts, in that throw, to see my coach cheering from the stands, it's like, 'OK, I think we did it'."

The pick of Track and Field News, Sports Illustrated, USA Today and Athletics Weekly to win in Paris, Rogers delivered. 

Camryn Rogers celebrates / Instagram

Including four relays, Cal now has seven Olympic gold medals in track and field. The most recent of those was by sprinter Eddie Hart on the 4x100 relay at the 1972 Games — 52 years ago.

She also allowed Canada to sweep gold in the men’s and women’s hammer after teammate Ethan Katzberg claimed the men’s title.

"To be on that podium and to hear the national anthem, it's something that I feel like I've dreamed of for so long," Rogers said. "I started throwing 12-and-a-half years ago. That summer was the London (2102) Olympics. Watching our Canadian women out there, doing their absolute best and representing our country so well. I knew I wanted to be here one day."

Poland’s Anita Włodarczyk, 38, the three-time defending Olympic champion and the world-recordholder, had her best performance of the season to finish fourth Tuesday at 243-6 (74.23). Rogers became the first woman other than Włodarczyk to win gold in the event since 2008.

American-recordholder DeAnna Price, 31, continued her history of struggles at the Olympics. The eighth-place finisher at the previous two Games, Price finished 11th with a best of 232-11 (71.00).

Cal junior Mykolas Alekna, the world-recordholder and top qualifier in the discus on Monday, hopes to give the Bears two gold medals in a span of 24 hours when he returns to the stadium on Wednesday.