Anita Wlodarczyk returned from nearly two years out of the sport due to knee surgery and then a lengthy rehabilitation process to join the pantheon of athletics greats by winning her third successive Olympic hammer title on Tuesday (3) evening.
The world record-holder suffered a string of early season defeats, and the hammer which she launches with speed and velocity was invariably landing closer to the 70 metre-line than the 80 metre-line in those competitions, but the Pole remained steadfast in her conviction she would return to the top of an event which she has monopolised for more than a decade.
And Wlodarczyk did just that. She launched the four kilogram implement to a season’s best of 78.48m in the fourth round which ensured a hat-trick of Olympic titles. A place in history beckoned as she became the first female athlete in Olympic Games history to win three successive gold medals in the same event.
Wlodarczyk was at the height of her powers in 2016 when she won the gold medal with a since-surpassed world record of 82.29m, a mark which now stands as a mere Olympic record. Her ‘first’ Olympic title came in more controversial circumstances as Wlodarczyk was upgraded to gold in London 2012 after initial winner Tatyana Beloborodova from Russia was stripped of her title in late 2016 due to a doping violation.
Five years later, Wlodarczyk was looking to add a third Olympic title to accompany her four European titles and four world titles. After misdirecting the hammer into the cage on her first throw, the Pole seized the initiative with a second round throw of 76.01m to take her into a lead which she never relinquished.
Wlodarczyk further extended her advantage in the next two rounds with throws of 77.44m and 78.48m respectively, the latter representing her best mark since 2018. By the sixth round, Wlodarczyk led the field by almost three metres although her lead was trimmed back by China’s world bronze medallist Wang Zhen who produced a throw of 77.03m, a season’s best but nothing to trouble Wlodarczyk’s best throw of the evening.
Wlodarczyk stepped into the circle for the sixth time knowing a historic gold medal was already assured. After bowing out with a throw which was measured at 77.02m, Wlodarczyk whooped and yelped in delight and celebrated her feat with the Polish contingent in the sparse crowd of accredited onlookers which included her coach Krzysztof Kaliszewski.
There was a second Polish medal to celebrate - and surely more to come in the men’s hammer final as well - as Malwina Kopron delivered back-to-back throws of 75.49m in the fifth and sixth rounds to ensure the bronze medal by a narrow margin from France’s Alexandra Tavernier (74.41m) and Canada’s Camryn Rogers (74.35m).
The anticipated head-to-head between Wlodarczyk and world champion DeAnna Price from the United States - who has expressed her respect and admiration for Wlodarczyk in the past - will have to wait for another day though after Price finished out of the medals in eighth with 73.09m.
It was revealed after the qualifying round that Price was short of fitness after fracturing her foot after the US Olympic Trials in Eugene where she became only the second thrower in history after Wlodarczyk to break the 80 metre-line.
Full results are available here.