Lifestyle

7 couples who competed at the Olympics together

By Emma Specter

Photo: Getty

Who can resist a sporting love story? From American ice-skating sweethearts to Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt's engagement to fellow alpine ski racing star Mikaela Shiffrin, these are the couples that have shared Olympic dreams

Shared interests and activities are essential to any good romantic relationship. While for me and my partner, that looks like drinking orange wine and listening to Charli XCX together on the back porch, for many athlete-for-athlete couples, it’s going to the Olympics à deux.

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Ahead of the 2024 Games in Paris, here is a round-up of couples who have competed at the Olympics at the same time. Perhaps it will inspire you and your beloved to start working out together? (Or not: as previously mentioned, I am personally too busy drinking and blasting pop music.)

1

Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt

Photo: Getty

Neither member of this all-star athletic pair is a stranger to smashing records; at 18 years old, Shiffrin became the youngest Olympic gold medalist in slalom skiing in 2014, and Aamodt, her Norwegian fiancé, won big at the 2020 World Cup. The two got engaged in 2024, something that seemed predestined by their adorable Valentine’s Day date at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

2

Laura and Jason Kenny

Photo: Getty

These married cycling stars have a whopping 12 Olympic medals between them, leaving one to wonder how they display them in their home. (Is there a dedicated shelf?) The two were both present at the 2020 Tokyo Games, and since leaving the competition arena (she announced her retirement in March of this year), Laura’s openness about experiencing an ectopic pregnancy has made her a whole new kind of role model.

3

Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall

Photo: Getty

This couple went viral when track and field star Davis-Woodhall was lifted into the air by Paralympics champ Woodhall after she won at the 2020 Olympics. Now that they’ve been married for almost two years, they’re more than ready to take on Paris 2024 together. “We hold each other accountable – we’re a partnership, we’re a team, and every day, it’s a new experience, but we get to do it together, so it makes it ten times better,” Davis-Woodhall said recently.

4

Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird

Photo: Getty

This most powerful of sports power couples literally met at the Olympics: they bumped into each other while doing press at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, and were engaged four years later. Is there any photo series more iconic than Rapinoe and Bird kissing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? I think not.

5

Amanda Chidester and Anissa Urtez

Photo: Getty

I adore a softball love story (there’s a reason I’ve watched A League of Their Own four times this year alone), especially when the lovers involved literally face off against each other at the Olympics, as Urtez (of Team Mexico) and Chidester (of Team USA) did in Tokyo. Chidester’s team won the game, but as of June the two are married, which makes them both winners in my book.

6

Evan Bates and Madison Chock

Photo: Getty

I’m beyond obsessed with these Team USA ice dancers, who met as kids while figure skating in Michigan and went on their first date in celebration of Bates’s 16th birthday. The two officially started dating in 2017, and if their IRL connection is as electric as their chemistry on the ice at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, then they may very well be the next Scott and Tessa (except, you know, actually together). After getting engaged in 2022, Bates and Chock tied the knot this past June.

Blayre Turnbull and Ryan Sommer

Photo: @blayreturnbull

Who can forget the sweet sight of these two athletes reuniting after three months apart at the 2022 Beijing Olympics? Turnbull is a hockey player and Sommer is a bobsledder, but they both compete for Team Canada. The pair celebrated a rainy wedding weekend last July, in Nova Scotia.

Originally published on British Vogue.