Heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton plans aggressive approach in Rio

By Doug Harrison, CBC Sports

While attending the University of Oregon, Brianne Theisen-Eaton always felt one step behind her boyfriend, now husband, Ashton Eaton.

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A year older, Ashton first won at the NCAA championships in decathlon and broke the collegiate record while Brianne won a NCAA title in the heptathlon. The next year, Ashton broke the world record, one-upping his girlfriend, who had achieved what he had the previous season.

"I always felt like I was in his shadow," said Brianne of Ashton, whom she married three years ago. "I felt like I was always overlooked and never got any recognition.

"He knew it bothered me, so he was always downplaying what he had done."

For Brianne, it was a matter of showing herself she belonged on the world stage and eventually the native of Humboldt, Sask., broke through and found her own identity.

Brianne and Ashton have thought often about what it would feel like if they both won gold medals in Brazil.

"We know this is our chance," said Brianne, who is the top-ranked heptathlete in the world the season and opens her Olympic competition on Friday.  "We're in our prime, you know. I don't know if either of us will do another Olympics."

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They almost won double gold last August at the world track and field championships in Beijing, China. Ashton, the 2012 Olympic gold medallist, set a world record with 9,045 points to finish first, while Brianne set a personal best of 12.98 seconds in the 100-metre hurdles but finished 105 points behind overall winner Jessica Ennis-Hill of Great Britain.

Brianne said she didn't have fun at the world event because she put too much pressure on herself.

"I had the mindset of 'just don't screw up.' That's the worst mindset you can have because you get tense and back off," she said. "You need to be aggressive when you're competing."

Brianne has been training for Rio for more than 10 years and, for the past two-and-a-half years, working with a performance psychologist to help her prepare mentally for the pressures at an Olympic Games.

At last year's worlds, Brianne recalled, she didn't have "the tools" to recover from being "overly nervous and anxious" at a big competition.

What I want in Rio is to go through my entire competition and not have a single regret about how I competed or how I did things.- Canadian heptathlete Brianne Theisen-Eaton

"The ultimate goal in Rio," Brianne said, "is to get to the point where I finish every event.

"What I want in Rio is to go through my entire competition and not have a single regret about how I competed or how I did things. I want to be able to look back on the hurdles and high jump and all seven events and say, 'I did the absolute best I can do.' If that is a gold medal, that will be great. If it's silver, that would be great."

Growing up in a town with 6,000 people, Brianne never aspired to being an Olympian. Once she became serious about track and field and joined the Saskatoon Track and Field Club, her top priority was an athletic scholarship to a school in the United States.

"I didn't have the goal of the Olympics until I started going to school in Oregon, was surrounded by people who have the same interest as me and [saw] the U.S. Olympic trials in 2008," Brianne said. "It brought me into that environment and that place where I was really meant to be."

A year after finishing 11th at the 2012 London Olympics, Brianne won silver at worlds and again in 2015, coming back from fourth place on the opening day of competition.

This season, she won the heptathlon at the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis, Austria in May with 6,765 points while no one in the worlds has surpassed Brianne's Canadian record of 6,808 (set at 2015 Hypo Meeting) the last two seasons. She also prepared for Rio with a third-place showing in the 100 hurdles at the recent Harry Jerome Track Classic.