It's Official: Cal's Rowan Hamilton Headed to the Paris Olympics

The reigning NCAA champion was named to the Canadian Olympic roster after finishing second in the hammer throw at the country's trials.

Rowan Hamilton / Photo by Steve Pretre

In what was essentially a formality, Cal’s Rowan Hamilton was officially named to the Canadian Olympic track and field team roster this week.

Hamilton all but locked up a trip to the Paris Games when he finished second at the Canadian trials in the hammer throw last week.

He becomes Cal’s second hammer throw specialist to qualify for the Olympics, joining fellow Canadian Camryn Rogers, who rates among the favorites on the women’s side in her second trip to the Games.

Hamilton also is the first man from Cal to represent Canada at the Olympics since Atlee Mahorn (200m) and Dave Steen (decathlon) in 1988.

Hamilton spent the first four years of his college career at the University of British Columbia, where he set NAIA-level records in the event and won three straight NAIA national titles.

He transferred to Cal for the 2024 track season and became the program’s first NCAA men’s champion in the event since Jack Merchant won in 1922. Exactly 100 years later and in the same French city, he now joins Merchant as the only Golden Bears to compete in the men’s hammer at the Olympics.

Hamilton is the fifth current or former Cal track and field athlete to qualify for the Paris Olympics. He joins Rogers, Lithuanian discus world-recordholder Mykolas Alekna, 1,500-meter runner Georgia Bell of Great Britain and Sweden’s Caisa-Marie Lindfors in the women’s discus.

Cal grad Anna Purchase, despite winning the British trials in the women's hammer, still has not achieved the Olympic standard and may be left home.

Cal now has at least 44 athletes from 16 countries in five sports headed to Paris.

Hamilton threw a season-best 253 feet, 2 inches (77.18 meters) this spring, moving to No. 8 on the all-time collegiate list. That mark places Hamilton at No. 18 on the 2024 world list, which is topped by his Canadian teammate, Ethan Katzberg, the reigning world champion and Paris favorite.