Brianne Theisen-Eaton draws from her past and rallies for heptathlon bronze

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brianne Theisen-Eaton crossed the finish line after completing the final event of the heptathlon Saturday night and found her way into the arms of her husband Ashton.

She had just run 800 metres, two laps of the Olympic Stadium track, the last of seven events over two grueling days of competition, and come up short of her goal. Theisen-Eaton came to Rio to win gold, but a bronze medal would have to do. And given where she stood 24 hours earlier finishing on the podium was quite an accomplishment. Ashton, the American track star who’s the gold medal favourite in next week’s decathlon, was there to remind her of that.

“He said ‘Good job, I’m proud of you, way to battle,’ ” said Theisen-Eaton. “He sees what goes into it and he gets it. He knows how I am. He saw that bad first day and normally the old Brianne would have gone in the tank and totally sucked. He said he was proud of me.”

And she was proud of herself, which just a year ago might not have been the case. It was at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing where Theisen-Eaton unraveled, settling for silver when the feeling was that she was almost assured of the gold. She described the result as catastrophic and a failure, revealing the insecurities that caused her to overhaul and emphasize her mental preparation. Rio threatened to be even worse. But a lot can change in a year.

Theisen-Eaton was sixth after the first day – two spots back from where she was at the World Championships – and entered Saturday night’s session at Olympic Stadium in fifth following the morning’s long jump, 146 points behind the surprise leader Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium and 95 points back of Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the bronze medal position.

“Trust your hips, trust your hips, trust yourself,” Eaton yelled from the stands as she fired her first javelin 47.36 metres – just shy of her personal best of 47.74 – and good enough for Theisen-Eaton to jump into a medal position as Johnson-Thompson struggled in the penultimate event.

That left the 800 and Theisen-Eaton stayed steady, putting forth the fifth best time of the field, holding onto her bronze and blasting away the memory of Beijing forever.

“Last year, the same thing happened. I had a terrible shot put and a terrible 200 and I cried all night,” said Theisen-Eaton. “I was exhausted when I woke up the next day. Yesterday, even though things were going bad I was holding myself together. I wasn’t freaking myself out. I wasn’t panicking. That’s probably why I woke up feeling so fresh today.

“I am really confident in my day two. So, I came out with a fire and, like, I gotta fix this. I have to have three solid events. I was excited to compete today and I was having fun, I was more relaxed.”

She delivered on all counts, but there was nothing she could do to catch Thiam, who ran away with the gold posting a score of 6,810 points. Jessica Ennis-Hill, the gold medallist at London 2012, took silver with 6,774 points while Theisen-Eaton scored 6,653 points, well off her Canadian record of 6808 – though walking around the track with a Canadian flag celebrating an Olympic medal more than made up for it.

Thiam is 21, accomplished on the junior circuit but not expected to contend on this stage yet. These were supposed to be Theisen-Eaton's Games, her long-awaited ascension to the top of the spot.

Instead, she fought back to earn bronze – and when a year ago a silver was the source of great anguish – the sting is lessened this time around by the circumstances of the competition and a perspective she discovered just in time to savour this moment that a day earlier looked unlikely.

“Going into this, I probably wouldn’t have said, ‘Yeah, I want a bronze medal,’ but I’m really, really happy with it. The Olympics is tough. If it wasn’t tough just to get here there would be a lot more people competing in it,” said Theisen-Eaton. “I don’t think you can take a medal of any colour for granted. I’m really proud of myself and I’m happy with my performance, even if it wasn’t gold.”

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr