The hammer throw is an athletic throwing event where the object to be thrown is a heavy steel ball attached to a wire rope with a handle on the end of the rope. The name hammer throw is derived from older competitions where in fact a hammer was thrown. Such competitions are still part of the Scottish Highland Games.

Like other throwing events, the competition is decided by who can throw the ball the furthest. Competitors gain maximum distance by swinging the 7.257 kg (16 lb) (4 kg for the womens) hammer repeatedly around their head while stationary, and then rotating very quickly with the movement of the hammer before releasing the hammer at the front of the throwing circle.

While the men's hammer throw has been in the Olympic Games since 1900, the IAAF did not start ratifying women's marks until 1995. Women's hammer throw was first included in the Olympics at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, after having been included in the World Championships a year earlier.

The current world record hold for the mens' hammer was set by Yuri Sedykh who threw 86.74 m at the European athletics championships held in Stuttgart (Germany) in 1986. The current world record hold for the women hammer was set by Mihaela Melinte who threw 76.07 m in Rüdlingen, Switzerland in 1999.