Erin Reese finishes 14th in hammer throw at Paris 2024 Olympics

David Woods
| Special for IndyStar

SAINT-DENIS, France — Erin Reese traveled to Europe for the first time. She boarded the boat alongside LeBron James for the opening ceremony. She experienced the diversity of humanity that is the Olympic Village. She hung out with the pitchers whose posters she has hung on her wall.

“It’s been amazing to have a week where you’re just an athlete and nothing else,” said Reese, a mental health social worker in Terre Haute.

It was the experience of a lifetime. But what he really wanted to do was compete for a hammer medal at the Paris Olympics.

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Reese finished 14th in qualifying Sunday at the Stade de France. Her distance of 230 feet, 5 inches was not enough to make it into the top 12.

Reese, 28, was the NCAA runner-up in 2019 while at Indiana State. She finished second behind Canadian Camryn Rogers, the reigning world champion and second-place finisher in Paris.

After shooting 225-6 in the first round, Reese improved to 230-5 in the second and moved up to sixth place in Pool A. His final attempt was a foul, which landed just left of the sector line.

She said she held on to the handle “a little too long” and that the last one was probably her best. She was seventh in her group and had to wait for the results of Group B to find out if she had made the cut.

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Similarly, when she came third at the Olympic trials, she had to wait to see if her world ranking would allow it.

“It’s always a matter of waiting,” Reese said. “I’d rather be in this position than not be in this position.”

Finland’s Krista Tervo, 26, topped the rankings at 245-4. The other two Americans, 2019 world champion DeAnna Price (242-1) and 2024 national champion Annette Echikunwoke (241-2), were third and fourth.

Reese felt support from many corners.

Her family in a Chicago suburb was hosting a 3 a.m. viewing party. Six friends flew to Paris to watch the game. She was getting so many text messages from Terre Haute that she had to put her cell phone away.

“I couldn’t stand it,” he said.

She’s still learning how to swing the hammer. When she first learned it at Dayton, she was so bad that her college coach told the throwing coach to stop wasting his time on her.

The event also seemed “terrifying,” he said.

When she arrived on her first world stage, she felt different. She said she felt calm, that she belonged there.

He has pledged to keep throwing through 2028, when the Los Angeles Olympics will be held. The improvement has been gradual but steady. At the U.S. Indoor Championships in February, he came within a foot of the world record in the 20-pound class.

“I’m still learning how to get involved in this,” Reese said. “So I’m excited for the future.”

Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at [email protected]Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

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