Ashton Eaton, Brianne Theisen-Eaton retiring from track and field

EUGENE, Ore., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Track and field's power couple are retiring hand-in-hand.

Ashton Eaton and wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton announced their retirements from the sport Wednesday. The duo wrote joint essays on their official website.

"...it's my time to depart from athletics; to do something new," Eaton wrote on the website. "Frankly there isn't much more I want to do in sport. I gave the most physically robust years of my life to the discovery and pursuit of my limits in this domain. Did I reach them? Truthfully I'm not sure anyone really does. It seems like we tend to run out of time or will before we run out of potential. That makes humanity limitless then, as far as I'm concerned. And I think that's inspiring."

Eaton, 28, defended his gold medal for the Americans in the decathlon in Rio de Janeiro. He won the last two world championships and is the decathlon world record holder.

"To my supporters and sponsors; The things I have achieved were achieved together with you. At times when I was doubtful, you believed. And if I was confident, it was also because you believed. Thank you for the love and support."

"To anyone I've competed with; To compete with you, learn from you, be challenged by you, and to be friends with you, are some of my most protected memories and experiences. Because of you it has been my pleasure to be an athlete."

Theisen-Eaton, 28, won bronze for Canada in the heptathlon in Rio. She was a silver medalist at the 2013 and 2015 world championships.

"I gave the last 4 years everything I could," Theisen-Eaton wrote. "I put my life on hold. Track and field was the priority before everything else: my family, my friends, my marriage, my future. This is something I chose to do and I don't regret it for a second. It made me happy to pursue something I was so passionate about."

"But I've done it," Theisen-Eaton wrote. "I went after what I set out to do and whether I achieved it or fell short is not the point. The point is that I know deep down that I gave it every ounce of energy I had and that if I went back and did it all over again, I would not change a thing; I could not have done anything better. Isn't this the point of sport? Isn't this the point of challenging yourself to something? To do the best you can do?"

"I no longer have the passion for track and field or the heptathlon that I used to because I know I can't advance any further in the sport; I've given it all I can, and I refuse to come back and half-ass it because I love and respect this event and sport too much," Theisen-Eaton wrote. "With that, I've decided to retire. It's time to move on to my next passion, the next thing in the world I hope to make an impact in."

The couple met at the University of Oregon and got married in 2013.