Love stories behind the world’s Olympic athletes
Feb. 14, 2026, 2:13 p.m. ET
In honor of Valentine's Day being celebrated during the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, see couples who have taken their love to the Winter Games.
Figure skating ice dance pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates of Team United States are partners both on and off the ice. The duo went on their first date on Chock's 16th birthday. Nothing came of the date, but the two friends stayed in touch and eventually started competing together in 2011. They started dating in 2017 and got engaged in 2022 following the Beijing Games, where they narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish, and tied the knot in a Hawaiian wedding in June 2024. The duo made their fourth Olympic appearance together (and their first as husband and wife) at the Milano Cortina Games after winning three consecutive World championships.
James Lang-Imagn ImagesFigure skating ice dance pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates of Team United States are partners both on and off the ice. The duo went on their first date on Chock's 16th birthday. Nothing came of the date, but the two friends stayed in touch and eventually started competing together in 2011. They started dating in 2017 and got engaged in 2022 following the Beijing Games, where they narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish, and tied the knot in a Hawaiian wedding in June 2024. The duo made their fourth Olympic appearance together (and their first as husband and wife) at the Milano Cortina Games after winning three consecutive World championships.
Bobsledders Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell of Team United States announced their engagement in June 2025. Love competed in track and field at UNLV before switching over to bobsled in late 2020. Less than two years later, she made her Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Powell shares a similar story and Love served as the catalyst. Love recruited Powell to switch to bobsled after the 2024 track and field season. Less than two years since starting the sport, he's set to make his Olympic debut in Milano Cortina.
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Snowboarders Red Gerard and Hailey Langland first met on the slopes in Mount Hood, Oregon, at age 12 and remained good friends until their "friendship developed into a relationship," according to Gerard. The duo made it official several years later before their respective Olympic debuts in PyeongChang in 2018, where Gerard went on to become the youngest Olympic snowboarding champion after winning gold in slopestyle at age 17.
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Skiers Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and MikaelaShiffrin have been dating since early 2021, and made their relationship Instagram-official a year later in June. The couple announced their engagement in April 2024. Shiffrin (American) has three Olympic medals, including two golds (Slalom in 2014; Giant Slalom in 2018) and one silver medal (Super Combined in 2018). Kilde (Norwegian) won two medals at the 2022 Beijing Games, a silver in Alpine Combined and bronze in super-G.
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Oksana Masters and Aaron Pikee, both seven-time Paralympians in Para Nordic skiing, first crossed paths at an U.S. para Nordic development event in 2013 but connected at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics after sharing a gondola ride together. Pike recreated the cable car ride eight years later in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park when he proposed to Masters.
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Cornelius Kersten and Ellia Smeding of Team Great Britain co-founded the coffee company Brew 22 in 2020 to fund their journey to the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Both are still involved in the coffee company, which has evolved to feature five flavors to represent each Olympic ring.Smeding finished 23rd in the 1000m and 27th in 1500m at Beijing 2022. Smeding may have been far off the podium, but made history as the first female long track speed skater to represent Great Britain since 1980. Kersten's best result came with his ninth-place finish in the 1,000m
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