The Beamsville native had her second Olympic wrestling medal draped around her neck Saturday, winning the bronze medal in the 55 kg. women's wrestling event Saturday, shortly before 5:30 a.m. local time.

While it was one rank down from her silver medal win in Athens four years ago, Verbeek admits there was a bit of a sweeter feeling to winning bronze this time around. Instead of the feeling of defeat that came in losing to Japan's Saori Yoshida in the gold medal match of 2004, this time she came away with a high, having won the match to earn the trip to the podium.

"It's a different feeling," said Verbeek in a phone interview from Beijing Tuesday. "I had to win that match for the bronze and to get on the podium, and it was a great feeling."

Verbeek edged Sweden's Ida-Theres Nerell 1-0, 1-0 for the medal. She had lost to Nerell two years ago at the worlds, but had defeated her in the Olympic semi-finals in 2004.

"She's a strong, physical wrestler, so I tried to stay focused and take my offensive opportunities when I had the chance," said Verbeek, a member of the Brock Wrestling Club.

Verbeek went for Nerell's legs when she had the chance, resulting in takedowns and her points.

Focus was the main part of her game plan, though, she said.

"I was pretty relaxed throughout the day and stayed focused, which was my plan," she said. "I was going into the match like every other match and just giving it my all."

Verbeek didn't let an 8-0 loss to her nemesis Saori Yoshida of Japan in the semi-finals affect that plan.

"I just had to stay focused after that, and continue on," said Verbeek, who credited her coach Marty Calder for helping her rebound in the bronze medal match.

Yoshida, who has only ever lost one match in her international career, went on to win the gold medal.

Verbeek, whose road to the podium saw her sweep her round of 16 bout against Mongolia's Otgonjargal Naidan 7-0 and beat Ludmila Cristea of Moldova 6-1 in the quarter-finals, wasn't disappointed about the end result.

"It's not the gold, but I feel good about my performance and satisfied," she said. "I told myself no matter what I wanted to wrestle the best I can and I'd be satisfied. I think I did that."

Verbeek did celebrate teammate Carol Huynh's gold-medal. While Verbeek was preparing for her bronze-medal match, Huynh was on the mat winning Canada's first gold medal of the Olympics in the 48 kg. category.

"That gave me a lot of inspiration and motivation," said Verbeek, who wanted to be there for the Canadian national anthem when it was played, but was busy preparing for her match.

"She's my good friend and for me, it was double the satisfaction to see her succeed and then me win the bronze," said Verbeek. "It was a good day for Canada for sure."

Verbeek, who turned 31 last week, is now contemplating her future in the sport. It appears another Olympics is definitely out of the question, but she's not sure when she will stop wrestling.

"I'm not ready to retire right now," she said. "I'm going to take some time to figure out where I'm going."

For now, though, she is enjoying the time left at the Olympics. She will be leaving Beijing prior to the closing ceremonies to join her father and sister, who were in Beijing to root her on, in Holland for six days. She said she will return home "to celebrate" on August 29.

Her second Olympic experience will be one she won't forget.

"It's been really great. We've had a lot of fun here and we have an amazing team that's like a big family," she said.