Fanshawe alumnus makes school proud with a bronze medal win in Rio

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: AGATA LESNIK, FANSHAWE COLLEGE PHOTOGRAPHER
Fanshawe alumni, Damian Warner won a bronze for the decathlon in Rio during the Olympics.

London native and Fanshawe business alumnus Damian Warner arrived back home on Aug. 24 after winning a bronze medal in the decathlon during the Rio Olympic Games on Aug. 18.

The 26-year-old tried his best, and managed to not only make his family, friends, hometown and college proud, but rather all of Canada.

Warner finished the two-day, 10 events competition with 8,666 points, giving him enough to land himself on the podium.

He fell behind gold medalist and American defending champion Ashton Eaton who finished with 8,893 points, and silver medalist France's Kevin Mayer with 8,834 points.

This makes it Warner's second time participating in the Olympics, the first being the London 2012 games, where despite having a double digit world standing, ended up finishing in fifth place.

He also won a bronze in the 2013 world championships, and silver in Beijing's world champions in 2015.

With this new win, Warner stands as the second Canadian athlete to have the best finish after the challenging event, the first being Dave Steen, in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

In Rio, Warner was surrounded by his mom Brenda, girlfriend and two members of his coaching and staff team Gar Leyshon and Dennis Nielsen.

It was his third shot on the javelin throw that put him into the winners' circle, though he still had to run the 1,500-metre dash to secure it.

The decathlon is said to be “one of the most difficult challenges in all of sports,” according to Warner's website and the Olympic gold medalist is reigned the “world's greatest athlete”.

The decathlon includes completing 100 metre dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 metre run, 110 metre hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and a 1,500-metre run.

“It feels good to say I'm an Olympic medalist,” Warner said during a press conference. “There are only three guys in the world who get to stand on top of that decathlon podium, and I'm one of those guys.”

Warner said watching fellow Olympian and friend Derek Drouin win a bronze during the 2012 Games showed him “it's possible for us [track and field athletes] to win medals at the international stage.”

In addition, Warner said his newly gained confidence was a perfect storm of things that also came from the fact that “ people [athletes] just kind of being not happy with just going to these competitions, but wanting to come to these competitions and doing their best getting on top of the podium,” he said.

Warner previously said he did not play on any varsity teams during his time at Fanshawe, but was an avid recreational basketball player.

Warner said he would like to compete in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.