Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's hammer throw

Eight entrants achieve the auto qualifier, five on their first attempt. It took 70.48 to make the final. Sophie Hitchon improved her own National record in the process.

In the first round of the final, reigning world champion Tatyana Lysenko was out to continue that success, tossing a new Olympic record 77.56. In the second round Zhang Wenxiu moved into second place. Kathrin Klaas made her best throw in the third round to move into third place, while world record holder Betty Heidler barely earned her final three throws in eighth place. In the fifth round, Heidler finally put one throw together, landing about 77 metres. But after a delay, the electronic measurement system only attributed 72.34 meters as the distance (actually the measurement of the following competitor Zalina Marghieva's throw). Confused officials couldn't find a proper solution, ultimately giving the struggling Heidler another throw. The extra throw was so bad Heidler walked out of the ring, deliberately fouling. Anita Włodarczyk moved into second place only 44 cm behind Lysenko's record. As the last thrower in the round, Lysenko improved the Olympic record to 78.18, solidifying her hold on gold, which turned out to be important as Włodarczyk's final throw of 77.60 beat Lysenko's first round record by 4 cm. After the competition was over, the measurement operators found a measurement of 77.12 in the system memory and credited it to Heidler, giving her third place, knocking Zhang out of what would have been her second consecutive bronze medal.

Entry List by Event. IAAF (2012-07-27). Retrieved on 2012-07-29. All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Betty Heidler (GER)	79.42 m	Halle, Germany	21 May 2011
Olympic record	Aksana Miankova , Later disqualified for doping (BLR)	*76.34 m*	Beijing, China	20 August 2008
2012 World leading	Aksana Miankova (BLR)	78.69 m	Minsk, Belarus	8 July 2012

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Distance	Record
10 August	Final	Tatyana Lysenko	Russia	78.18 m	OR
10 August	Final	Anita Włodarczyk	Poland	77.60 m	OR