After winning an Olympic gold medal at the summer games in Paris, Ethan Katzberg says it is good to be home before his next venture.
Students and staff at John Barsby school in Nanaimo gathered today to welcome the alumni world champion hammer thrower back with cheers, gifts and speeches
Katzberg says his success in Paris couldn’t have been possible without support from family, friends, and the teachers who inspired him throughout his journey.
“I made a lot of great friends, and some awesome teachers that really helped pave the way for my career,” Katzberg says.
Katzberg says early on in his academic career he participated in several different sporting venues, before getting involved in the hammer throw, but it wasn’t until an accident changed him and put him into the sport that would eventually land him a gold medal.
“I ended up breaking my arm, and then decided I couldn’t do any of the running events,” he says. “I decided to watch my sister do the hammer throw, after I healed up I took it on.”
After setting a record, and a gold medal, Katzberg reflected to that moment, and says although putting in the effort on the first throw is not the most ideal thing to do, that moment in time he knew it was the winner.
“You never want to assume you’ve done enough on the first throw, there’s so much competition left to have,” he says. “I tried staying focused, and throw further, I put in my head there was no point in throwing less.”
Katzberg has a long history of winning medals in various athletic events but says winning in Paris wasn’t something he was looking for, he just wanted to better himself one day at a time.
“I approached it slowly, and built on each day of training, that was kind of my focus,” he says. “I never really looked at the bigger picture, it just kind of showed up.”
He says bringing the sport to Vancouver Island would be a dream come true, and a good goal setter.
Katzberg’s next goal is to take some vacation time, and then train to defend his title at the Tokyo 2025 next September.
