Gleadle

When Liz Gleadle emerged as an elite female javelin thrower over the last decade, she filled a vacancy of long-standing in Canadian track and field.

In qualifying for the final round at the 2012 Olympic Games, for example, the Vancouver native became the first Canadian woman javelin thrower to advance that far since the Games in Mexico City in 1968.

Just by punching her ticket to the 2012 Games in London, Gleadle achieved something no Canadian woman had done since 1988, which is the year she was born. Gleadle finished 12th in her specialty at those Games, but she was just getting started.

Her 2013 season was mostly a write-off, owing to a back injury. But in 2014, Gleadle finished fifth at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, twice broke her Canadian record and won the Diamond League event in Birmingham, England.

On May 10, 2015, Gleadle sent one 64.83 metres, the fifth-ranked throw in the world that year, breaking her own record. That effort remains the Canadian record to this day. And it turned out that achievement set a tone for the rest of her 2015 campaign.

Gleadle won gold at the Pan American Games in Toronto that same year, with a throw of 62.83 metres. She also qualified for her first IAAF World Championships that year, finishing 11th in Beijing. Having also qualified for the Diamond League Final in Zürich that season, Gleadle won silver at that event with a throw of 62.70 metres.

Gleadle’s progress stalled somewhat in 2016 after she suffered a back injury in training, throwing her mechanics out of whack. It was the first season in her career that she did not set a personal best.

Still, Gleadle did qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where she finished ninth in qualifying and did not advance to the final round.

Fit and healthy in 2017, Gleadle’s overall performance experienced an uptick, although she finished 12th at the IAAF World Championships in London, with a best toss of 60.12 metres in the final.

In April 2018, Gleadle finished fourth at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Later that year she claimed her eighth national title at the Canadian Track & Field Championships.

Gleadle had a strong 2019 season, qualifying for her second straight World Championships and throwing further than she did in all of 2018. She also banked her ninth Canadian title and earned silver at the 2019 Pan American Games.

Like a lot of Canadian athletes, Gleadle’s 2020 season was washed out by the COVID-19 pandemic. She came back strong in 2021, scoring podium results at meets in the United States and Europe, and claiming her 10th Canadian javelin title in very windy conditions in Montreal this past June.