Ashton and Brianne-Theisen Eaton Retire Together

The world’s most athletic couple is retiring together.

The United States’s Ashton Eaton, and Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton both called their careers quits Wednesday, fresh off of gold and bronze medal performances respectively at the Rio Olympics.

Ashton’s gold marked a successful and rare back-to-back Olympic title reign in the decathlon, earning him the moniker of “World’s Greatest Athlete” twice, joining only Bob Mathias and Daley Thompson as the only men in history to repeat as decathlon champs.

Ashton holds the world record for points in a decathlon, twice setting the record. He hadn’t lost a competition that he finished in the final three years of his career, with his last meet coming in Rio. With his remarkable pedigree of record-shattering performances, Eaton is sure to go down as one of the greatest athletes of all time.

In interviews throughout the recent Olympic games, Eaton had said that he no intention of returning for Tokyo 2020, but did make comments intending that he planned on sticking his career out until the end of the 2017 season.

While Theisen-Eaton didn’t reach the same level of success that her husband did, she did make quite the name for herself on the heptathlon circuit, adding a gold in the 2014 Commonwealth Games to her bronze in Rio. The third place finish was a stark improvement from a disappointing eleventh that Theisen-Eaton finished in the London games in 2012.

The couple met as teenage students at the University of Oregon and got married in 2013. The duo each topped the podium in their respective events at the world indoor championships in Oregon last year, but they were unable to repeat the feat in Rio.

Regardless, the duo will go down in history as one of the most athletic and most accomplished couples in the history of track and field.
The couple has not announced what their future career plans are.