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Kathryn Mitchell

Kathryn Mitchell

Age

41

Place of Birth

VIC

Hometown

Casterton

Junior Club

Casterton Little Athletics Club

Senior Club

Eureka Athletic Club

Coach

Uwe Hohn

Olympic History

London 2012

Rio 2016

Tokyo 2020

High School

Casterton Secondary College (yr 7-11) Ballarat High School (yr 12)

Career Events

Athletics Womens Javelin Throw

 

Kathryn's Story

Fast Facts

Sport: Athletics
Event: Javelin
Olympic History: London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Highlights: 2018 Commonwealth Games gold
Club: Eureka Athletics Club
Year Born: 1982
State Born: VIC

About Kathryn

Kathryn Mitchell has been ranked consistently among the best female javelin throwers in Australia for well over 17 years, representing at all the major championships and even making Olympic finals.

She started javelin by luck growing up in a Victorian country town Casterton, “I grew up on a small farm and one year my sister borrowed a javelin from the school to throw around the paddock to practice for the school sports and I had a go. I didn’t get to do a competition in javelin until I started high school when I was 13-years-old. I broke the school record in the first competition”.

Before taking javelin seriously aged 17 she played tennis, basketball, sprinted, made state in long jump and was a boundary line umpire. She made her international debut at the 2003 World University Games and three years later in her home state of Victoria, competed at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

She has competed at four Commonwealth Games, improving her place on every occasion. After sixth in Melbourne she was fifth, then fourth, before gold at the Gold Coast Games. Her Olympic debut in London was a turning point in her career. Aged 29 she committed to making her first Olympics and if not, it would be the end of her career. Having not thrown over 60 metres in her career, during 2012 she exceeded that barrier on eight occasions with an impressive best of 64.34m, qualified for the Olympics and made the final.

Her career continued to progress, up to 66 metres and a final at the 2013 World Championships and Rio Olympics. After missing the final at the 2017 London World Championships she felt burned out and took a rest. She then tried some different processes under the VIS Sports Psychologist Mark Spargo and in early 2018, she compiled a phenomenal series of performances with a series of PBs-66.73m (January), 67.58m (February) and 68.57m (March). The last two were Australian records and the best mark elevated her to number seven in history and was the longest throw in the world since 2013.

Then in April was the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where she launched her opening attempt to another PB and Australian record of 68.92m. She was very emotional after the performance, in tears as the reality started to set in. After limited activity for two years, she returned in good form in 2021 exceeding 63 metres on three occasions and claiming her third national title. 

Kathryn was selected for the Tokyo Games – her Olympics following London and Rio. It was a shaky start for her in the qualifying round in Tokyo, tripping over on her first attempt and landing on the grass infield.
"I stacked it on the first one. My leg turnover wasn't right, I'm not even sure what happened really, I just realised I was laying on the grass. That impacted mentally, I tried to reset, start again and return to what I try do every throw. The second one had better timing and it was enough," Mitchell explained. 

She joined Kelsey-Lee Barber and Mackenzie Little in the final – the first time in Olympic history Australia has had three athletes in the men’s or women’s javelin final. In the final Kathryn duplicated her distance with a throw of 61.82m to place sixth.

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