Enlarge By Jeff Swinger, USAT USA's Ronda Rousey (in blue) battles Germany's Annett Boehm in their 70kg Judo match. Rousey earned a bronze medal -- the USA's first medal in women's judo.  FENCING, TAEKWONDO, JUDO, BOXING AND WEIGHTLIFTING Fight/Strength home: All the details during the Games | USA rosters | Schedules & Results Video profile: Mojo HD feature on boxer Gary Russell, produced by USA TODAY Live What do you watch for at a fencing match?: Sport sheds its "Zorro" image Going for gold blog: Tracking the stories of the Beijing Games Lopez's blog: The little sister's journal Morehouse's blog: The man behind the mask Get to know Team USA's best: Steven Lopez profile | View video and photo gallery

"It's kind of late to go to the prom, but I'll find something to make up for it," she said Wednesday after going 5-1 in a day of battles and winning a bronze medal in the 154.3-pound division.

After hard training through two Olympics, going to college is in the mix. So is becoming a vegan (consuming no animal products). "As of right now, I am a vegan. I put that off until after this tournament. Being an athlete, you try to get protein," said Rousey, from Santa Monica, Calif. "And I'm going to probably take out a loan. … I'm going to drive a clean car, and I'm going to buy a surfboard. I made up this long list of stuff."

Might the rough and tumble world of Mixed Martial Arts also be on the list?

"I don't know," said Rousey, adding she knows people in the sport, including a coach who has been talking to her. "He says, 'Just come and learn how to punch. Maybe we'll find you a fight later,' " she said. "So I don't know. I might learn how to throw a punch, but I'm not making any promises."

The red marks of her face showed that Rousey, a world silver medalist in 2007, did plenty of hand fighting in her matches.

"Look at my face. Does it look like I can take a good hit?" she asked.

Rousey, 5-7, did much of her hand fighting in her only loss to long-armed 6-footer Edith Bosch of the Netherlands in an overtime quarterfinal. Bosch poked at Rousey's face to keep her away. With 3 minutes, 17 seconds elapsed in overtime, Bosch turned Rousey on her back for the match-ending ippon.

In 1984, Rousey's mother, AnnMarie De Mars, became the first U.S. woman to win a world judo title. Rousey came here for Olympic gold. So she walked off the mat with her chin down after the defeat.

"She has high expectations, and she's from a champion breed," U.S. coach Eddie Liddy said. "She was looking for the gold medal, and she's been training strictly to achieve that goal."

Rousey had to regroup and win three more matches to claim the bronze. She said a conversation with her mother the day before helped her do that.

"I kind of want to live up to what she has done, and so I was like nervous about disappointing her," Rousey said. "And she was like, 'I've already won my medal. I only want it for you because I know what it feels like and I want you to have that, and if you don't win tomorrow, I won't be disappointed in you or mad.' "

Rousey rolled through her last three matches.

"She basically brought it all from within and stepped it up," Liddy said.

In 1988, two Americans won medals when women's judo was an Olympic demonstration sport. Rousey's mother's friend, Lynn Roethke, took silver. Rousey said after her bronze she was surprised it was the first Olympic medal for a U.S. woman in judo.

"I didn't really know it (Roethke's silver) didn't count," she said.

Rousey's counts. "I couldn't be happier," she said.