Humboldt's Brianne Theisen-Eaton is back in the community for the first time since her inspiring bronze medal performance in the heptathlon at the Rio Games.

Fresh off her second Olympic experience she says it's always great to be back in her hometown.

"I think it's really cool and that's the reason I like being from a small town because you feel that support and everyone is excited for you yet at the same time when I come home I am just regular Brianne. They know who I was growing up."

Theisen-Eaton used a strong finish in the 800-metre race to pull into third in the final event.

She admitted the heptathlon is a sport that pits athletes versus athletes but she thinks her inner strength and success comes by just trying to better herself.

"I wanted an Olympic medal but looking back and seeing how far I've come I kind of never would of thought that I would be winning an Olympic medal. Over the last couple years it's turned into see how good you can be, don't set any limits."

"It's inspiring to wake up and be like, you know what, maybe I can improve a tonne today."

That was paramount as she was in 5th heading into day two of the heptathlon. Her performance was also a huge upswing from her 11th place finish in London in 2012.

However, at one point in April while battling some injuries, Theisen-Eaton came to the point where maybe Rio wasn't meant to be.

"You do have a choice, you can quit," her sports psychologist explained to her during a tough time in her road to the Games. "It's about that you don't want to quit, you have to keep going but you have to remember this is what you chose. You have to deal with injuries day to day and you have to be able to manage it and why did this happen to me? That was probably the closest I came to, I'm not going to make it there."

She did get healthy just in time to post a score of 6,653 points which was enough to bring home the bronze medal and collect the nation's first podium finish in the seven sport event ever.

For now her future, as well as husband Ashton's is up in the air but she always knows there's room for her at home.

"I had so many people saying they were up at weird hours watching me compete, or they taped it so they could watch it later, for all the schools who signed flags, my mom brought all of those to Rio and they were hanging in their apartment so I got to see them all. Just for all your support, I really appreciate it and I love being from Humboldt."

You can hear much more from Brianne as she joined Ronald Quaroni for some fun on the air answering questions from our listeners.