Kathryn Mitchell

Kathryn Mitchell has been ranked consistently among the best female javelin throwers in Australia for well over two decades, representing at all the major championships and achieving three top-8 Olympic results.

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 third 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 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 - her third consecutive top-8 Olympic result.

After the Tokyo Games Kathryn experienced a tough time with the passing of her mother. In 2022 she competed in the qualifying rounds at the world championships but withdrew from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games with an unknown illness she picked up when travelling from America.

Still unwell in 2023 she eventually made it to the Budapest World Championships. “Six weeks ago I pulled the pin on the season,” she said in Budapest. “I couldn’t get healthy, was just struggling. By the time I got well enough to train I had a three-week window to qualify.”

In the qualifying round she required just one throw (62.10m) to automatically qualify for the final. She was also joined in the final by her teammates Mackenzie Little and Kelsey-Lee Barber. But the final didn’t go to plan. On her final throw in the warm-up for the final she torn her adductor.

Recovered and into her 2024 campaign she opened the season with a brilliant win at the Maurie Plant Meet in February throwing 62.12m. At Nationals she was second and again over 60 metres, but in late April in China she ruptured her soleus (lower calf muscle) on her first throw.

A week later she wrote, “What’s important in these situations, speaking from vast experience, is that we stay optimistic, respect the body’s healing process, train what is trainable, control what is controllable double time. My head is good. My body is good. And I have time to recover."