Hammer throw legend Martin Bingisser (left) meets up with Coupeville chucker Logan Martin. (Bob Martin photo)
Call it the Martin and Martin Show.
Coupeville grad Logan Martin, now a track and field star at Central Washington University, recently got a chance to meet and throw with Martin Bingisser, Switzerland’s national hammer throw coach.
A former All-American at the University of Washington, he’s an 11-time national champion in the sport who is also a lawyer and founder of HMMR Media – a leading online resource for throwers.
Bingisser is a busy man but has family in Bellingham and makes the trek from Switzerland every two years.
Enter the ever-resourceful Martin, who used email and Instagram to convince the legendary thrower he should meet up with his #1 fan when in Washington state.
“I was quite the pest, but it paid off!” Martin said with a laugh.
The duo, along with Logan’s dad, Coupeville High School track and field coach Bob Martin, met up at Western Washington University.
“It was very surreal when I was able to shake his hand and hang out with him for the day,” Logan Martin said.
“I see him as a living legend and quite literally everything he said was gold.”
While achieving his own success, Bingisser was coached by Anatoliy Bondarchuk, an Olympic gold medalist in 1972 who has gone on to mentor an incredible string of world record holders.
During his own rise in the sport, adding the hammer throw to the shotput and discus as a high school athlete, Logan Martin has been a relentless worker, both in the practice circle and reading about the sport.
A lot of that research came directly from Bingisser’s writing.
“After digging a little bit, I found that 90% of the hundreds of pages that I’ve printed out and filed, were written by Martin, which was really cool,” Logan Martin said.
During his time at CHS, Dalton’s younger brother played soccer, tennis, basketball, and track, claiming 2nd place at state in all three of his throwing events.
Logan Martin then made the jump to college track and field, earning All-West Region honors in the hammer throw as a CWU freshman this spring.
With his sophomore campaign looming ahead of him, the work continues.
Getting to spend valuable time with one of the best the sport has ever seen is invaluable.
“I was able to take away a whole new perspective on myself as an athlete and my throw,” Logan Martin said.
“And also, two notebook pages that are filled with chicken scratch from that session,” he added with a laugh.
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