February 20 2026, 08:15 
Sports fans are celebrating a U.S Olympic couple who shared a video of their engagement on Instagram.
Olympic hockey star Hilary Knight proposed to U.S. Olympic speed skater Brittany Bowe, Outsports reported, getting down on one knee and presenting a ring in a red box in the Olympic Village. Bowe excitedly held her hands in front of her face and nodded in acceptance before leaping into Knight’s arms and excitedly showing her ring to the camera while embracing her fiancée.
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“Olympics brought us together. This one made us forever,” the couple wrote on their Instagram video, a reference to the fact that their relationship began four years ago at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Outsports noted that the couple has represented the U.S. at a combined nine Olympic Games, winning a total of six medals. The Italian Winter Games may be their last Olympics as competitors.
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Bowe told People magazine that their first date at the 2022 Winter Games involved them walking around the Olympic village in face masks, since the Games coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A very unique way to meet someone, but it was also kind of cool because we felt like we were in this bubble,” Bowe said. “We didn’t have the family, the friends, no outside distractions. And we really had a lot of time just to get to know each other.”
Several out athletes celebrated the women’s engagement, including out former Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon, who wrote, “OMGGGG I WANT TO FLIP TABLES I WANT TO SCREAM I WANT TO CRY. I am also OBSESSED with how gay it is to propose in sweats. I LOVE YOU GIRLS!”
Lesbian tennis pro Billie Jean King, who coached Olympic teams despite tennis not being an Olympic sport during her heyday, wrote, “Congratulations from both of us!” referencing her and her wife, fellow former tennis pro Ilana Kloss, OUT reported.
Bowe and Knight aren’t the only romantic couple competing at the Games. Belgium’s Kim Meylemans and Brazil’s Nicole Silveira, who are both skeleton competitors who married each other last year, embraced on the ice after competing.
After winning a gold medal in her event, Switzerland’s slopestyle skier Mathilde Gremaud also won a kiss from her girlfriend, Austrian elite mountain bike athlete Vali Höll.
This year’s Winter Games features 49 out LGBTQ+ athletes from 14 countries who have won four gold medals and two bronze medals so far, placing queer Olympians in sixth place among the countries with the most medals. Eight of the out Olympians are representing the United States.
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