RIO DE JANEIRO — An hour after Bend’s Ashton Eaton added to his ever-growing legacy Thursday night with his second Olympic title in the decathlon, his current coach, Harry Marra, and his former coach, Vin Lananna, ran into each other at Olympic stadium.

“Hey Vin,” Marra said as the two embraced, “thanks for the hire.”

Marra, a man with 40 years competing or coaching in the multi-events, knows greatness when he sees it, and when it comes to Eaton, that’s all he sees.

“I wish the rest of the world understood that a little bit more,” Marra said. “Repeating in the decathlon, repeating when so many things can go wrong, that’s impressive.”

That is what Eaton was during his two days of competition in Rio, when he became just the third person in Olympic history to win two gold medals in the decathlon while also recording an Olympic-record-tying score of 8,893 points.

He joins Bob Mathias (1948, 1952) and Daley Thompson (1980, 1984) as the only other two-time gold medalists.

“I’m just happy to be a part of the family, the decathlon family, regardless of the records,” Eaton said. “To be a two-time medalist is great, but it’s just greatest to be a decathlete.”

Marra was hired by Lananna at Oregon in 2009 to be the progam’s multi-events coach when Eaton was a junior. He later became the professional coach for Eaton and his wife, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, who won bronze in the heptathlon for Canada last Saturday.

“It’s been a seven-year journey,” said Marra, who does not expect to coach past next year. “The decathlon is hard, and there’s just so many pieces to juggle.”

As he always does, Eaton handled his performance with an air of effortlessness.

He opened the day with 4,621 points and 121-point lead over Germany’s Kai Kazmirek.

After running the 110-meter hurdles in 13.80 seconds, throwing 149 feet, 3 inches in the discus and clearing 17-¾ in the pole vault, his total had grown to 7,370 and a 124-point advantage over France’s Kevin Mayer with two events to go.

With a couple of personal bests in the last two events, Eaton’s world record of 9,045 was in play.

However, Eaton tweaked his shoulder in the pole vault and his javelin suffered because of it.

In fact, after Mayer opened with a PR throw of 213-4, he briefly took the lead before Eaton rebounded with a mark of 196-1 on his third attempt to head into the 1,500 up on Mayer 8,104 to 8,060.

To get his gold, Eaton had stay within 6.5 seconds of Mayer in the final race. Instead, he finished more than two seconds ahead.

“I’m glad that this wasn’t just an easy walk-through,” Eaton said. “I guess the decathlon is never just an easy walk-through, but Kevin Mayer was there to push me to the test, and I think I passed the test. I’m glad he was there to do that.”

Mayer won silver with 8,834 points, and Canadian Damian Warner won bronze with 8,666 points.

American Jeremy Taiwo, who finished in 11th, has seen Eaton compete for years and is no longer surprised by anything he does.

“I’ve always known he’d be able to set Olympic records and world records,” said Taiwo, a former Washington Husky whose college career overlapped Eaton’s. “To see him still maintain such great character and also see how he handles all the pressure … especially in these situations, when things don’t go so well in the meet itself or when there’s expectations … to see the way he handles himself is amazing.”

And that is partly why Marra thinks there has been no one better.

“I said to Ashton at the end, ‘Bob Mathias, David Thompson, Ashton Eaton … and you’re the best,” Marra said. “For me, because they’re friends of mine, (Caitlyn) Jenner and all those guys, it’s still hard for me to say ‘I’m coaching the best ever?’ It’s historic.”