Budapest 23 x Throws Preview: Women's Hammer
By Kara Winger
Four-time Olympian, nine-time U.S. national champion, and 2022 Diamond League Final winner Kara Winger provides us with her insight ahead of the throwing competition at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Who will be crowned this year’s world champions? Follow along all week for Kara’s previews before tuning in to watch the meet on NBC and Peacock (which will also have some additional streams of field event finals).
Women’s Hammer
From left to right: DeAnna Price, Brooke Andersen, and Janee Kassanavoid. Photo by Howard Lao
Qualification Round: Wednesday, 8/23 | Group A – 10:00am PT, Group B – 11:35am PT
Final Round: Thursday, 8/24 | 11:26am PT
Defending World Champion Brooke Andersen of the USA leads the world with her 80.17m mark from May: Her first career toss over 80m came after a very strong start already to the 2023 season, and is just 24 centimeters back from the American Record. She has four other marks this year - a season in which she has traveled significantly more than in the past and racked up excellent results overseas - just at or beyond the Oregon22 silver medalist, Camryn Rogers of Canada, with an SB and PB of 78.62m. Camryn, the NCAA Record holder and Tokyo finalist, has thrown beyond 76m in all ten of her 2023 outings, and must be bolstered not only by her own impressive international career resume so far, but her countryman Ethan Katzberg’s World Title on the men’s side on Sunday.
Eugene bronze medalist, American and proud member of the Comanche Tribe Janee Kassanavoid only has one outing under 73m on the season, and has shown up when it mattered, just like she did in 2022. Her SB of 76.60m came when teammate Brooke threw 80m in Tucson in May, and she reached 76.44m against the extremely competitive field at 2023 U.S. National Championships to secure her place in Budapest and finish third. Janee’s bronze medal performance in Eugene really got the competition going, as she hit the mark early and held on to reach the podium for the first ever North American sweep of the event on the world level.
Two women absent from Oregon in 2022 who will come roaring back into the fray in Budapest are 2019 World Champion Deanna Price (U.S. Record holder, 2nd all-time with 80.31m), and 3x Olympic, 4x World, and 4x European Champion Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland (the World Record holder at 82.98m). They have both had their fair share of injuries and unfortunate circumstances since Tokyo, but experience will serve them both well here. Anita’s SB of 74.81m is far below her standard (she owns a silly 18 of the top 25 marks in world history), but at 38 and with so very many global titles, many eyes will be on her.
The woman with the second-most marks on that list (5 of the top 25 ever, and she holds spots 26 and 27), is returning champ Brooke. Eugene was her third straight U.S. team (she finished 10th in her Olympic debut), and the poise she showed in winning not only her first global title last year, but again at the 2023 edition of the USATF Outdoor Championships, responding to Deanna’s onslaught round after round, impressed me so much.
I’ve only mentioned five women. There are twelve spots in the final (auto mark is 73.00m). That’s just how stacked the top of this field is, and the really wild thing is that there are plenty more American women who would be competitive on the world level. The U.S. has four athletes on this team thanks to the extra spot Brooke earned with her victory last year, and Jillian Shippee’s performance at Nationals to grab the fourth roster spot tells me she’s ready to be in that top 12 as well. Her PB at the beginning of July of 74.93m puts her in fifth on the start list by distance, ahead of Anita and not out of reach of the podium, either!
I really can’t wait. And I hope someone else in the field also has a big PB to mix things up: We love to see that at a major championship, no matter where the athlete is from. Watching someone perform the best they ever have at the moment it counts the most is just the best. Sometimes when there’s such stiff competition at the top, all those athletes get tight, and the door opens a bit more for someone else. There is no telling what will happen!