Inside Canada's rise to hammer-throwing greatness

Camryn Rogers had already won gold by the time she stepped up for her sixth and final throw.

But it wasn't until after the implement left her hands that the gravity of what she accomplished at the Olympics seemed to sink in for the 25-year-old from Richmond, B.C.

It was Rogers' fifth throw, a 76.97-metre toss that leapfrogged her over American Annette Nneka Echikunwoke, that made her the first Canadian woman to ever win Olympic gold in hammer throw.

Rogers sank to her knees, taking a moment for herself in the circle.

After hugging her competitors, she ran to hug her coach, Mo Saatara, who can tell how she's going to throw each day based on how she walks toward him. Then, she celebrated with her parents, including mother Shari, who'd been holding on tight to a locket her daughter gave her as a child, something she's done at every competition.

It was the culmination of a dream that started for Rogers 12 years ago, and years of work by coaches behind the scenes to help Canadians compete with the best of the best in the hammer throw.

Two days earlier, Canadian Ethan Katzberg won gold in the men's hammer throw with a distance of 84.12m on his first try. No one else was close, and it's not even the furthest Katzberg has thrown this year.

Chilliwack, B.C.'s Rowan Hamilton, who bears a striking resemblance to Katzberg, finished in ninth place among the men, while Victoria's Adam Keenan finished eighth in qualifying and did not move on to the final.

The results cement Canada as the best country in the world in hammer throw, a sport that has traditionally been dominated by competitors from European countries.

"Things like this don't just happen overnight," Rogers told CBC News Network's Heather Hiscox the day after she won gold.

"I think that Canada has been pretty blessed to have had a lot of really amazing people who are so knowledgeable and invested and dedicated to the sport of throwing and especially hammer throw.

WATCH | Rogers becomes Canada's new queen of hammer throw:

"To be able to spread and share their knowledge over the many years they've been involved in the community and to now see it really coming to fruition through all the people, the throwers who have been on the world stage, it continues to build."

The last time Canada won an Olympic medal in hammer throw was in Stockholm in 1912, when police officer Duncan Gillis took home silver with a 48.30m throw. Soon after, he left the sport to become a wrestler.