The University of Colorado Colorado Springs, which hosted the event, said the implement had “cleared certified barriers.”
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The University of Colorado Colorado Springs hosted the meet on Sunday.Credit...Google Maps
Jan. 27, 2025
A heavy weight thrown by a participant at an indoor high school track meet cleared safety barriers and struck and killed a spectator in Colorado Springs on Sunday, the event organizers said.
“A member of the attending audience was killed when a hammer thrown by a participant cleared certified barriers and struck him,” said a statement from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, which hosted the meet at its Mountain Lion Fieldhouse.
The meet was canceled after the death.
The El Paso County coroner’s office said Tuesday that the victim was Wade Langston, 57. The Colorado United Track Club said in an email reported by 11 News and other local news media that the victim was the father of one of its team members.
In the more familiar hammer throw, contested outdoors at events like the Olympics, competitors spin around in a circle to build momentum and then release a heavy ball on a chain, which is known as a hammer.
For safety, the spinning takes place in a cage with an open segment for the hammer to go through when it is released.
At indoor meets like the one in Colorado Springs, the event is normally renamed the weight throw.
The implement is attached to a grip, rather than a chain, and is heavier than the hammer so that it does not travel as far. As in the hammer competition, the thrower is within a cage or netting.
At the Olympic Games, men can throw the hammer well over 200 feet. High school boys typically throw a 25-pound weight indoors, but they can still throw it quite a distance: The record for that age group is currently more than 90 feet.
Hammer and other throwing events can be dangerous, and cases of injury to competitors, officials and spectators are not rare.
As recently as September, a teenager was critically injured by a hammer at a meet in Australia.
Javelins can be thrown even farther than hammers, and their sharp tips also contribute to the danger. Even at the sport’s highest levels, disaster can occur.
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