(R) Kimmie Meissner poses for a photo with her fiancé Josh Heyne.
Once the queen of triple jumps, a 16-year-old Olympian and then a world champion in figure skating, Kimmie Meissner is now 29 years old and happily into the next stage in her life.
As of this weekend, that next stage includes getting married, as longtime boyfriend Josh Heyne proposed, Meissner announced in an Instagram post on Sunday night.
A `six-photo slideshow captured the moment when Heyne dropped to a knee and presented a ring to Meissner at a marina, before the newly engaged couple posed for pictures with loved ones.
Known for her elite jumping ability, Meissner made waves in the figure skating community at age 15 when she landed a triple axel at the 2005 U.S. championships, becoming only the second U.S. woman to land the difficult jump. One year later she went to Torino as the youngest member of Team USA and finished sixth at her lone Olympic Winter Games. Then, one month after that, she landed seven triple jumps in winning the world title.
The Towson, Maryland, native also won the 2007 U.S. title and Four Nations Championships but fell short in her bid to come back for another Olympics in 2010.
Meissner worked for NBC during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and sometimes performs in figure skating exhibitions. According to a February story in the Baltimore Sun, she now coaches young skaters at Ice World in Abingdon, Maryland, where she trained growing up, while also working part-time as a physical therapist.
Heyne played baseball at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, where he won an NCAA Division II national title. He now works at a local utility company and instructs baseball and softball players, according to his social media accounts.
Chrös McDougall has covered the Olympic movement for TeamUSA.org since 2009 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. He is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.