Anderson Peters

Anderson earned the Austin Sealy Trophy with a winning performance at the 2016 CARIFTA Games. Anderson increased his personal best distance in the javelin throw on three occasions at the Whitsuntide Games 2017 at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium. He  achieved a distance of 81.23 meters with his final throw. He surpassed both his personal best and the national record on June 25, 2017, at the Trinidad and Tobago NGC/SAGICOR/NAAA National Open Championships, with a throw of 83.36 meters. With this throw, he met the qualifying criteria for the World Athletics Championships in 2017.

Anderson later traveled to London for the World Championships in 2017. However, his best effort of 78.99m secured him the 20th position in the preliminary round, thus failing to qualify for the finals. On March 23, 2018, during his second outdoor competition of the year, Anderson recorded a javelin throw of 81.95 meters, smashing the previous freshman record set by Mississippi State by more than six meters. He rose to the top of the NCAA leaderboard and to fourth place in the global rankings, owing to the throw. The USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Men’s National Athlete of the Week award was given to him afterward. He also received All-American honors after winning the NCAA title in the javelin event with a new mark of 82.82.

Peters earned gold in August 2019 at the Pan American Games, breaking both the national and games record in the process. With this, he took home Grenada’s first gold medal from the Pan-American Games, thus creating history. At the World Athletics Championships 2022 held in Oregon, he successfully defended his global title by defeating Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra with three throws of more than 90 meters. At the Commonwealth Games 2022, he achieved the silver medal after losing to Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, with a throw of 88.64 meters. For his contributions to sports, Peters was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours.

Among his greatest rivals are javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Arshad Nadeem. Neeraj is an Indian javelin thrower who is also the reigning Olympic champion. He defeated Peters at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2018 to become the eventual winner. At the World Championships 2022 held in Oregon, Peters got past Neeraj to become the world champion with a throw of 90.54 m. In the absence of Neeraj at the CWG 2022, Peters was considered to be the mega favorite, having won the world championships. However, Pakistani javelin thrower Nadeem came up with a massive 90.18 m throw during the CWG. As a result of which, Peters had to settle for the silver medal with a best effort of 88.64 m.

Anderson Peters was born on October 21, 1997 to Anthony John Peters and Antonette Peters. He has two siblings: Kiddon Peters, his brother, and Jamesha Peters, his sister. He is of Afro-Grenadian ancestry. He received a full scholarship in January 2017 to attend Mississippi State University following his high school graduation. He went to university and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. On April 30, 2021, he completed his graduation.