Reaching the athletic summit
Christopher Hammer, project coordinator for ASU's Academic Enterprise Enrollment, won the gold medal in the PTS5 sprint triathlon at the Paris Paralympics. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Shortly after the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, Christopher Hammer was sitting in the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
He had visited the White House along with the rest of the U.S. team and was waiting for his flight home when he read that a triathlon would be contested for the first time in the 2016 Paralympics.
Hammer, project coordinator for Arizona State University’s Academic Enterprise Enrollment, had made the 2012 team as a runner. Becoming a triathlete? He had never considered it.
Until that moment.
He emailed the USA triathlon performance director, introduced himself and went to a tryout camp in 2013.
“I just wanted to give it a shot,” Hammer said. “I had no triathlon experience. But at that point in my life, I wanted to try something new.”
Twelve years later, that spur-of-the-moment decision led to the biggest achievement of his athletic life: Hammer — who was born without his left hand and with an underdeveloped left arm — won the gold medal in the PTS5 sprint triathlon at the recently completed Paralympic Games in Paris.
As he stood on the podium, the gold medal around his neck, the national anthem playing and the event — a 750-meter swim, a 20-kilometer bike ride and a 5K run — behind him, Hammer reflected on a moment from months earlier.
He had won a World Triathlon Championship Series race in Yokohama, Japan, and, at the age of 38, thought he had perhaps reached his athletic summit.
“I told my wife, ‘This is probably the last time they’ll ever play the national anthem because of me.' I thought about that when I was on top of the podium in Paris. That was the one thing that really stuck out to me. It was like, ‘Oh, I guess I was wrong.’”
Hammer has been exceeding expectations — even his own, apparently — all his life. Doctors could offer no explanation as to why he was born without his left hand and his left arm underdeveloped, but his parents didn’t need one. They simply looked forward, insistent that Hammer live the same life as any other child.
“It was never an excuse growing up,” he said. “If I wanted to do something, we would adapt and overcome.”
So Hammer played baseball and golf and ice hockey. He became an accomplished runner, a five-time Division II All-American. Success in the triathlon didn’t take long, either. He made the U.S. team in the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. But after not medaling in either of the Games, he realized he needed to more fully devote himself to the sport.
He moved to Arizona to join an elite training group, trained up to 35 hours every week — in addition to working at ASU — and wound up atop a podium, a huge smile on his face.
Next up, maybe: the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.
“I’ll have to think about that,” Hammer said. “But, yeah, there’s no retirement announcement coming anytime soon.”
Hammer was one of dozens of Sun Devils who competed in the Paris Olympics, the Paralympics and the Pan American Games this summer. Here's a look at the fellow medalists and competitors.
ASU medalists in the Olympics, Paralympics and Pan American Games
Olympics
- Léon Marchand, men's swim (France) — 200 IM/gold, 400 IM/gold, 200m butterfly/gold, 200m breaststroke/gold, 4x100 medley relay/bronze; competed at ASU from 2021–24.
- Ilya Kharun, men's swim (Canada) — 100m butterfly/bronze, 200m butterfly/bronze; current student.
- Bente Rogge, women's water polo (Netherlands) — bronze; played at ASU from 2017–21.
- Lieke Rogge, women's water polo (Netherlands) — bronze; played at ASU in 2019.
For a full list of how all Sun Devil athletes fared in the Olympics, visit thesundevils.com.
Paralympics
- Korban Best, track (Team USA) — 100m T47/silver; studied sports science and performance programming in the College of Health Solutions.
- Allysa Seely, triathlon (Team USA) — PTS2/bronze; triple ASU graduate: ’11 BS in biological sciences, ’11 BS in psychology, ’13 MA in interdisciplinary studies.
Other Sun Devil competitors included: Eric Bennett, para archery (Team USA) — '06 Master of Education; Owen Cravens, para triathlon (Team USA) — studied business data analytics in the W. P. Carey School of Business; Taylor Swanson, para track and field, (Team USA) — '16 Bachelor of Arts in interdisciplinary studies.
Pan American Games
- Ryan Liu, Sanda — gold; undergraduate student in kinesiology.
Jared Whittler, undergraduate student in sports science and performance programming also represented Team USA in Sanda.
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