Hammer Throw Olympic Stadium

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Safety cage: Can withstand powerful impacts and prevent ricochet

Length 119.5cm  121.5cm

London Olympics women’s hammer throw gold medallist Tatyana Lysenko* (RUS)

*now Tatyana Beloborodova

Doors: Adjustable for left and right- handed throwers

Weight 4.00kg 7.26kg 

Optimum throwing angle

Technique Hammer swings twice around head to build momentum

Three or four rotations around load-bearing foot to increase speed

Release

Olympic records

Sergey Litvinov (URS) Seoul, 1988 84.80m

Tatyana Lysenko (RUS) London, 2012 78.18m

World records

Yuriy Sedykh (URS) Stuttgart, 1986 86.74m

Anita Wlodarczyk (POL) Cetniewo, 2015 81.08m

Sources: Rio 2016, Olympic.org, IAAF

Pictures: Associated Press