When Jackie Joyner-Kersee was making history at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Canada's Brianne Theisen-Eaton hadn't been born just yet. (She was born in December 1988.)
Brianne Theisen-Eaton would grow up to become a track and field star herself, the Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the Great White North. As a Canadian, she'd competed in the Commonwealth and Pan American Games, having won the heptathlon at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and won bronze in the 4x400-meter relay in the 2015 Pan Ams in Toronto, before going on to take bronze in the heptathlon at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She also won the pentathlon in the 2016 World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Portland, Oregon.
It was while at the University of Oregon where Brianne met a fellow student athlete, American (and native Oregonian) Ashton Eaton. She married Eaton, a two-time Olympic decathlon champion (2012, 2016), in 2013.
And here's the happy couple.
Don't they look cute? They reside in Eugene, Oregon, both having retired from track and field.
Eaton caused a stir among American reactionaries - not for being a biracial man married to a white woman, but for cheering his wife on at the 2016 Olympics . . . and thus rooting for a foreigner. So what if there were no American women in serious contention for the heptathlon that year? Well, Brianne Theisen-Eaton is a de facto American now, so maybe Ashton will be forgiven for . . . rooting for his own wife! (Sarcasm.)
That's it for this edition of beautiful athletes. I'll have a fifth edition later on.
No comments:
Post a Comment