The technical wizardry helping hammer thrower to land medals

German hammer thrower Merlin Hummel is adding the intricacies of Applied AI to his sport – with medal-winning results.

The 23-year-old reached the hammer throw final at the Olympic Games in Paris last year, and on Wednesday in Bochum claimed silver at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games.

“Hammer throw is a really complex event and generates loads of data,” Hummel told the FISU Games News Service. “I always try to analyse that and use it to guide my training.

“I don’t want to overthink things too much, so I started thinking about how I could use my studies in Applied AI to develop a new tool.”

Throwing the hammer is a heavyweight discipline that demands explosive power and strength. It also requires technical precision, perfect timing and balance.

Mind, guts and a performance app

And Hummel, who was the German champion in 2022, has found a way to combine it all when preparing to compete. He relies on mental strength, advice from his coach Martin Ständner, his gut feeling – and now a self-designed performance app.

“The main thing is that I’ll take a lot of positives from what was, for me, quite a disappointing event, and turn that into motivation and a real sense of gratitude,” he said.

Hummel has trained an AI model using images of himself and thousands of other hammer throwers. The live mode will then give athletes real-time feedback during their training sessions, as the app recognises the hammer and calculates accordingly.

A perfectionist in the throwing circle, Hummel is equally focused on producing technical excellence away from the field of play.

“I’m now in the final phase of development,” he says. “You still come across the odd bug here and there, of course, but I want to bring out a top-quality product.”

Impact on sport

With AI already analysing sleep and crunching huge amounts of data at high speed, Hummel is sure the technology’s impact on sport will expand even further.

“It goes in every direction – recovery, mental strength, technique. We’re going to see huge progress,” he said.

“In every discipline, it’s all about fine margins – not just at the elite level. Even in amateur and recreational sport, there are always people keen to work on their technical details.”

Hummel placed 10th in Paris last summer and is currently ranked No.8 in the world. As well as improving his competition results, his goal is to release his product in the app store to help other hammer throwers with their training routines as well.

And more features are planned. “From a business point of view, I could say a lot but I’ve learned not to talk too much and instead just get on with things quietly.

“What I can say is that I want to win an Olympic medal. I’m still young, and hopefully there’s a long journey ahead.”