Canada’s heptathlete Theisen-Eaton, husband Ashton Eaton, retiring from track
In the moments after she crossed the finish line of the Olympic heptathlon’s 800 metres, Brianne Theisen-Eaton was completely spent, any bit of mental energy used up over the final gruelling steps of one of track and field’s toughest events.
She was thankful to be done. She never wanted to do another heptathlon again.
And in the weeks that followed her bronze-medal performance in Rio, those feelings never waned. Not while she was trekking with her American superstar husband Ashton Eaton to Machu Piccu, or while she was working with World Vision in Kenya, or criss-crossing the United States camping with friends.
And so Theisen-Eaton is retiring, leaving the sport both satisfied with her career as Canada’s finest female multi-events athlete in history, and knowing she had absolutely nothing left to give.