17 Beloved Olympian Power Couples & Their Love Stories

Huang Ya Qiong & Liu Yuchen

China’s Huang Ya Qiong and Liu Yuchen, who are both competing in Badminton for their country at the 2024 Paris Games, are not only a couple but are new fiancés too!

Yuchen proposed to Qiong right after she left the podium and won gold in the Badminton mixed doubles tournament.

“For me, the proposal is very surprising because I have been preparing for the game,” Huang told reporters, per Daily Mail. Congrats to the happy couple!

Tobin Heath & Christen Press

Team USA soccer stars Tobin Heath and Christen Press recently revealed they’ve been a couple for eight years without the world knowing. 

“Tobin and I were not really friends,” Press said of their beginning in Peacock’s Watch with Alex Cooper, per E! News. “We weren’t really running in the same circles, and then as soon as I actually got to know her, there was just like, a magnetism. I was like, ‘That’s what I want’ and I never looked back. I still feel the exact same way.”

But while the world might’ve not known they were together, they were always out and proud with their inner circle. “We were never in the closet, like, hiding it,” Press explained. “Our people always knew what was going on with us. It was the public, the fans that we got our little privacy.”

Press has one Olympic bronze medal while Heath has three medals (including two golds). Together, they’re vying for one more in Paris. 

Gregorio Paltrinieri & Rossella Fiamingo

Italian Olympic medalists Gregorio Paltrinieri and Rossella Fiamingo are quite a powerful pair. In addition to being engaged, both of them took home medals in Paris already. Fiamingo, who’s a professional fencer, won the gold medal for the Women’s Team Épée earlier today. Also earlier today, Italy’s most awarded swimmer Paltrinieri won bronze for the Men’s 800m Freestyle. 

The pair have been together since 2021. 

Gaël Monfils & Elina Svitolina

Tennis players Gaël Monfils of France and Elina Svitolina of Ukraine are one impressive Olympic pair. The couple, who have sadly both been eliminated from their competitions this year at the 2024 Paris Games, have been together since 2019.

In April 2021, the pair were engaged, and three months later, married. For their honeymoon, they traveled to Japan where Svitolina took a pause from sightseeing and won her one and only bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Monfils, on the other hand, has participated in three Olympic Games but has yet to place. 

Dominik Černý & Hanka Burzalova

Race walk athletes Dominik Černý and Hanka Burzalova will represent their home country of Slovakia during this year’s Paris games.

The two previously got engaged after crossing the finish line of a 35km race walk final during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Megan Rapinoe & Sue Bird

After meeting in a group photo shoot at the 2016 Rio Olympics, World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe and the retired WNBA star Sue Bird totally hit it off.  “I was like, ‘Okay, don’t be a cliché lesbian, where you love this person when you first meet them,'” Rapinoe told GQ about their first texts. “But it just was immediately like, ‘Oh, this is home.'”

In 2020, after living in a COVID-19-safe bubble during their respective training seasons, Rapinoe popped the question during a trip to Antigua. “There was a look in her eye,” Bird told GQ. “I could just sense it. I knew what was happening.”

The pair have yet to tie the knot. 

Tara Davis & Hunter Woodhall

In another meeting that feels so fitting for Olympians, long jump star Tara Davis and Paralympics medal winner Hunter Woodhall first met during a Track meet during their senior year of high school in 2017, per The Knot. A quick slide in the DMs later, their romance began, and so did their long-distance relationship (Davis attended the University of Georgia and the University of Texas while Woodhall attended the University of Arkansas). 

In 2021, they got engaged in an intimate proposal in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. “You make me a better person and I can’t imagine a life without you,” Woodhall wrote in the caption on Instagram. “Thank you for trusting, supporting, and loving me the last 5 years. here’s to the rest of our lives.”

Over a year later, in October 2022, they tied the knot. “You may not ever get to meet your heroes, but l’m glad I get to marry mine,” Woodhall wrote on Instagram alongside beautiful pictures from the wedding. 

“This has been such a dream,” Davis told People of their special day. “Ever since we started dating, Hunter and I have talked about getting married. We truly saw each other for the rest of our lives and this is just so surreal. We’ve hit so many milestones together and this is the biggest one. It’s everything we dreamed of!”

Madison Chock & Evan Bates

Ice dancing duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates’s love story begins with a story of crossed paths. It all started when Chock moved to Michigan when she was just 13 years old to pursue ice dancing. But while Bates was training only 20 minutes away, it still took five years for them to become partners on the rink in 2011. 

Over five years later, Bates, who had developed a strong friendship with Chock over the years, decided to bite the bullet and admit his feelings. “I felt like there was always something there — a spark,” he told The New York Times. “But we always kept it professional. After five years of highs and lows together as partners, he confessed his feelings.

“He took me by surprise,” Chock said of the moment. “But then at the same time, I wasn’t surprised. I was like, ‘Oh, actually I have feelings for you, too.'”

Six years later, in June 2022, Bates proposed in Phuket, Thailand. “Six years of dating, 11 years of skating together. And I’d love to spend the rest of my life with you,” Bates said as he got down on one knee. Talk about a movie moment!

On June 20, 2024, they tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony in Oahu, Hawaii.

Gerek Meinhardt & Lee Kiefer

USA Olympic fencers Gerek Meinhardt and Lee Kiefer are so adorable that we can’t wait to see them dominate this summer. 

The pair first officially met fencing together in Notre Dame. “When I was a freshman our relationship with very new so early on we knew how to train, be competitive together and be each other’s greatest support,” Kiefer told ND Loyal. 

“Tournaments aside we’re just appreciative of all the opportunities we have to travel the world and experience amazing events like this together,” Meinhardt said ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. 

In 2019, the pair tied the knot. 

Katie Boulter & Alex De Minaur

British Tennis star Katie Boulter and Australian tennis star Alex De Minaur are a tennis match made in heaven. The pair, who have been together since 2020, only went public with their relationship a year later in 2021. 

According to De Minaur, a lot of their slow beginnings were figuring out their priorities. “I think what was very important in the early stages is we kind of talked about tennis being our number one priority and we would make all of this work, just finding that balance,” he told ATP. 

Since then, they’ve been by each other’s sides ever since. “He’s so supportive of me in the job that I do and completely understands. Not many people do,” Boulter told The Standard, per Hello! “To have that kind of connection where they know what you’re going through, they know the lows and highs, it does feel very comforting. I’m lucky to have him.”

Misato Komatsubara & Tim Koleto

Back in 2016, American figure skater Tim Koleto was at a standstill in his career. Having gone separate ways with his partner on the ice, he was as confused as ever. Then, he met Japanese skater Misato Komatsubara. 

“When Misato and I met, it was a crossroads of life for both of us,” Koleto told Edges of Glory. “We share not only a love for skating but a dedication and sense of responsibility and respect for the sacrifices our families have made. And that includes the weight of what would be the last chance for both of us.”

“That sense of duty and the finality of our opportunities, based on age and our experiences, made us instantly compatible,” he added. “And I think that living on another continent away from family, having been through representing countries that are not our own, created an unspoken bond between us that few people understand.”

Therefore, it didn’t take long for their connection to blossom romantically. “We were in similar places in our lives that made our communication easy and made the transition of being an on-ice couple to being an off-ice couple both natural and gradual,” he said. “We also have our fair share of odd interests and hobbies that sprinkle our relationship with all kinds of fun experiences.”

In October, Halloween to be precise, Koleto proposed at Universal Studios. “And that’s how it’s always been for us: unexpected, impulsive, and without hesitation,” he said.

“There was concern between us with how to separate our home and work lives,” he said. “In the beginning, we tried desperately to keep them separate, but over time we realized for us it was more conducive to our development – both as skaters and people – to blur the lines a bit. Now, sometimes a step will come up while we are cooking dinner or during a TV show we’re watching, and we’ll chat about it or walk through the steps and then go back to whatever we were doing.”

In 2017, Koleto, who just recently announced his retirement, married Komatsubara.

Hans Peter Minderhoud & Edward Gal

Dutch dressage stars Hans Peter Minderhoud and Edward Gal have been publicly out as early as 2008, and they’ve been more successful than ever since.

“Competitions are a way of life and it is so much fun if you are with someone who precisely understands that and knows what you are doing, dedicating all your time to horses,” Minderhoud once told Eurodressage. 

“In the show ring, we are just competitors but we grant each other the success,” Gal added. 

Talking to FEI, Minderhoud admitted that they luckily haven’t had much pushback in the sport. “No, I haven’t, but in our sport it’s not an exception being gay,” he said. 

Atanu Das & Deepika Kumari

Indian Olympic archers Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari also have had each other to rely on during tough competitions. 

“I am so lucky he’s in my life,” Kumari once told World Archery. “I’m very lucky to have him as a husband and a friend.” 

In fact, according to Das, seeing Kumari’s success has largely motivated him throughout his career. “Seeing her perform best at the highest level, sometimes, I would get mentally depressed to cope,” Das told Olympics. “I would keep working hard and ask myself ‘When would my turn come?'”

“She would always say mera time pehle aaya hain, tere baad mein aayega (I peaked earlier, your time will also come)…You just keep working hard,” Das added.

The two have been married since 2020. 

Celia Quansah & Megan Jones

England Women’s Rugby players Celia Quansah and Megan Jones first met at Loughborough University and have been kind of inseparable ever since. 

“As I got to know her, she was so kind, empathetic and compassionate,” Jones told Team GB of Quansah. “All the things that I lack! The more we spoke, the more I started to fancy her and love her more. We realized we are soulmates, which is crazy, because not many people can say that I don’t think.”

Getting together, however, came with some tough conversations. 

“Obviously it’s a bit of a risk getting with someone that’s in the team,” Quansah explained. “You have to be sure it’s going to work, you’re spending every day together. In the team environment, if you’re having arguments and not getting on, it’s going to affect the dynamic of the team. From the start, we were thinking about more than us.”

“But it wasn’t even really a question,” she said lovingly. “We spoke about it quite a bit but we knew it was going to work.”

“It is just easy,” Quansah said later on. “We complement each other, definitely. Meg is very outgoing. We really respect each other which is the other thing. I really respect Meg with how she is in rugby on the pitch and off it, our families work and she fits in so well with my family. They literally love her and it’s the same the other way.” Talk about a perfect match!

Red Gerard & Hailey Langland

Like so many romances in this gallery, snowboarders Red Gerard and Hailey Langland started out as friends. 

“Red and I met in Mount Hood [Oregon] when we were 12 and on the Burton team. Our team manager gave him my phone number and he started texting me funny messages,” Langland remembered to ESPN. “We became best friends for years.”

During that time, friends and family couldn’t help but see a spark. 

“I think everyone but me saw it,” Langland admitted. “I’d say, ‘No, we’re too young. We’re too good of friends.’ But it made sense. Even though we spend every single day together, I don’t think we get tired of one another. He’s my favorite person to be around.”

For Gerard, having his confidante around in competitions has been the biggest blessing. “Most guys don’t get to have their girlfriends with them at contests, competing with them,” he told the outlet. “For me to have that experience where Hailey and I get to travel around together is awesome.”

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde & Mikaela Shiffrin

Record-breaking slalom skier Mikaela Shiffrin met her match when she started dating Norwegian alpine skier and 2020 World Cup champion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.

After going public with their relationship in 2021, Kilde gushed about their connection, both in their sport and beyond. 

“We’re having an amazing time together and what I find really cool is that we can share experiences and have conversations about things I can’t really have with anyone else,” he told Olympics.com.

“I like her as a person more than anything else,” he continued. “For me that she’s a skier is just a bonus. I really enjoy spending time with her, and that’s what I keep in mind. Anything else is just a bonus.”

Earlier this year, in April, they announced their engagement. “🤗🫶💍👫🤭,” they wrote in the caption of the joint Instagram post. 

Dame Laura Kenny & Sir Jason Kenny

British cyclists Dame Laura Kenny and Sir Jason Kenny make up the most successful couple in Olympic history. If you ask them, a lot of that can be attributed to their partnership, both off and on the course. 

“Jason puts up with so much rubbish on a daily basis from me,” Laura told Cosmopolitan. “We go through such highs and lows. But we are always there for each other. Because we go through the same things together he knows what to say he has been through it himself. That has been such a massive help for me.”

The pair first met in 2010 when Laura joined the GB team for the first time. Despite their relationship now, however, their connection was far from love at first sight. 

“I didn’t like him, I really didn’t,’ Laura once remembered. “If he was in a room with me, he’d just sit there; he wouldn’t come up to me.”

When he finally did, however, connection soon blossomed. Laura and Jason went public with their relationship in 2012 and tied the knot in a private ceremony in 2016, per BBC. 

They’ve also since welcomed their sons Albert, six, and eight-month-old Monty. 

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