Love connections take place every day and everywhere, but when you train and travel with the same people year-round, romance is bound to happen. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we take a look at 14 Olympic couples that fell in love thanks to their sport. See if you knew how they met or even that they were together.
Jamie Anderson and Tyler Nicholson
Sport: She is a 25-year-old snowboarder who competes for Team USA, while her 20-year-old boyfriend is actually an up-and-coming snowboarder from Canada.
Olympic experience: She has a gold medal in slopestyle snowboarding’s debut in 2014. He represented Canada at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, also in slopestyle snowboarding.
How long they’ve been together: The two — who are now Facebook official — will celebrate one year together in March.
How they met: Despite years running in the same circles and competing at the same events, they didn’t know one another when they met at a bar in Whistler, British Columbia. “He might have known who I was,” she wondered, “but I was definitely crushing on him for a while before we started dating.” Regardless of how they met, she admitted she is “so thankful for him! Makes life so much more fun!”
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Laura Bennett and Greg Bennett
Sport: They were both triathletes who competed for countries on opposite sides of the world – she for the U.S. and he for Australia.
Olympic experience: She is now 40 and a two-time Olympian who competed in 2008 and 2012. Meanwhile, her now 44-year-old husband raced at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
How long they’ve been together: The two met in 2000 and have been married since November 2004.
How they met: She was in Canada training for what was supposed to be her last hurrah as a professional athlete — because she was tired of the travel and ready to find someone to settle down with. He was debating whether or not to retire. Once the two laid eyes on one another, it was love at first sight. Ironically, both stayed in the sport for many years after, even competing in the next three Olympics between them.
Tracy Caulkins and Mark Stockwell
Sport: They both were professional swimmers — she for Team USA and he for Australia. When she retired from the sport in 1984, she had set five world records and 63 American records, which was more than any other American swimmer — male or female!
Olympic experience: At 53, she is a three-time Olympic gold medalist who competed at the Los Angeles 1984 Games. He is 52 and a former sprinter, who also earned three medals in ’84. One of his medals was a silver in the 100-meter freestyle, coming in just behind American Rowdy Gaines.
How long they’ve been together: Seven years after meeting they were married in June 1991. The couple now lives in Australia with their five children.
How they met: He was quite taken with her when he saw her at the Los Angeles Olympics and jumped into the warm-up pool to introduce himself.
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Madison Chock and Deividas Stagniunas
Sport: She is a 23-year-old ice dancer from the U.S. He is a 30-year-old former ice dancer from Lithuania.
Olympic experience: Both of them competed — along with their respective partners — at the 2014 Olympics. He was also given the honor of being his country’s flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony.
How long they’ve been together: The couple has been together, she said, “for about six years.”
How they met: Chock explained that it happened when “he moved to Michigan and we began training together. We became quick friends and loved spending time together.”
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Aly Dudek and Steve Langton
Sport: They are both winter Olympians, but competed in different sports. She is a short track speedskater; he is a (now retired) bobsledder.
Olympic experience: Dudek, 25, is a 2010 Olympic bronze medalist and also competed at the 2014 Games, while Langton, 32, has two bronze medals from the 2014 Winter Games and also competed at the 2010 Games.
How long they’ve been together: The two have been together since the Sochi Olympics two years ago. He claimed after a long conversation the night of the Opening Ceremony, he knew he was in trouble.
How they met: At an event a couple days before they were to fly out for the 2014 Winter Games, the two found themselves standing in line next to one other. They exchanged a couple of words and days later she found herself asking his teammate (who was friends with her teammate) to give that cute bobsledder her number.
Jamie Greubel Poser and Christian Poser
Sport: Both are bobsledders, but her 29-year-old husband competes for his home country, Germany.
Olympic experience: Greubel, now 32, took home bronze at the 2014 Olympics, where he also competed.
How long they’ve been together: The two dated for three years before getting married in the summer of 2014.
How they met: The couple first saw each other at a world cup race in Whistler in 2011. Once it was obvious that both athletes had noticed one another, Greubel went and introduced herself.
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Jessica Hardy and Dominik Meichtry
Sport: Both are Olympic swimmers, but while she is on Team USA, her 31-year-old husband competes for Switzerland.
Olympic experience: At 28 years old, she holds a gold and bronze medal from the London 2012 Games. He is a three-time Olympian who at the Beijing Olympics swam the eighth-fastest time ever recorded in the 200-meter freestyle, even beating Michael Phelps until the semi-finals.
How long they’ve been together: The two, who have been together since 2006, married in October 2013.
How they met: The pair initially met at the 2005 world championships, and started dating during their time attending University of California, Berkeley.
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Sarah Hendrickson and Torin Yater-Wallace
Sport: She is a 21-year-old ski jumper, while he is a 20-year-old halfpipe skier.
Olympic experience: Both competed at their first Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014, where she had the honor of being the first female to ever jump in a ski jumping event at the Olympics when it made its debut in 2014.
How long they’ve been together: The first time he asked her out was after the Closing Ceremony in Russia. He invited her to come with him (and the rest of the men’s halfpipe team!) for pizza.
How they met: They have the same agent, who was always trying to get the two of them to hang out, even when she wasn’t single!
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Andrea Henkel and Tim Burke
Sport: Burke, 34, is a biathlete for Team USA, while his wife, 38, is a former biathlete for Germany.
Olympic experience: She is a four-time Olympian with four medals and he has competed at the past three Games.
How long they’ve been together: Dated for six years before marrying in October 2014.
How they met: Both athletes were competing on the world cup circuit when they met. Since they spend five months a year traveling to the same places for competitions they gradually got to know one another and realized they had a lot in common.
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Devin Logan and Travis Jayner
Sport: She is a 22-year-old U.S. freeskier; he is a 33-year-old short track speedskater, who — despite being born in Canada — also competes for Team USA.
Olympic experience: Both have Olympic medals: hers is a silver from the Sochi Olympics; his is a bronze from the Vancouver Games.
How long they’ve been together: They have been a couple for almost two years.
How they met: Their first meeting was at the United States Olympic Committee’s 100 Days Out to Sochi celebration in New York’s Times Square in November 2013. Shortly after that, they connected over Twitter.
Thalia Munro and Brett Ormsby
Sport: Both are water polo Olympians.
Olympic experience: They pair competed at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, where she took home the bronze.
How long they’ve been together: The two — both 33 years old —have been together since 2002 and married in 2009. They now have two kids together, Gavin, 2, and Anika, who is 4 months.
How they met: The pair met while at University of California, Los Angeles, he said “simply through the fact that the water polo players on the women and men’s teams run in the same circles.” They got to know each other during the spring of his freshman year and hit it off.
Brianne Theisen-Eaton and Ashton Easton
Sport: He is a 28-year-old decathlete for Team USA. She is a 27-year-old heptathlete, but competes for Team Canada.
Olympic experience: He holds the gold medal from the 2012 Olympics in decathlon, as well as the world record in both decathlon and indoor heptathlon events. She also competed at the London Olympics in heptathlon, coming in 11th.
How long they’ve been together: The couple — who were engaged for two years before getting married in July 2013 — have been together since 2007.
How they met: While attending the University of Oregon, the two met as they both ran track and field and trained together during their four years there.
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Ashley Wagner and Eddy Alvarez
Sport: She is a 24-year-old figure skater and he is 26 and the first Cuban-American male speedskater to make an Olympic team. He has since left skating to focus on baseball, playing minor league ball in the Chicago White Sox organization.
Olympic experience: Both took home medals at the 2014 Olympics: hers a bronze in the team event, his a silver in the 5,000-meter relay.
How long they’ve been together: The couple — who are making it work even though it is a long-distance relationship (her in Los Angeles, him based out of Miami where his family is) — met at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
How they met: Despite both being at a work-related photo shoot in the spring of 2013, the two met for the first time at an appearance on the “TODAY” show just prior to the 2014 Winter Games. He claimed it was love at first sight and before they knew it, they were spending all their free time at the Olympics together.
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Kristi Yamaguchi and Bret Hedican
Sport: She was a figure skater and he a NHL hockey player.
Olympic experience: Yamaguchi, now 44, has a gold medal from the 1992 Winter Games, while her husband, 45, played in those same Games and then again in Torino, Italy 14 years later.
How long they’ve been together: The couple — who have two daughters, 12-year-old Keara and 10-year-old Emma — dated for five years before marrying in 2000.
How they met: They met at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, but Yamaguchi said it was all a blur as it was the day after she won her gold medal. It wasn’t until three years later when they finally went out that he was able to leave a more lasting impression.
