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She didn’t win a second medal, but she still left the Olympics with some extra hardware. She didn’t get gold, but there was a silver lining. She may have crashed, but it was her boyfriend that got down on one knee.
These are just some of the lines various media outlets have written about U.S. downhill skiing champion Breezy Johnson’s engagement at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics Thursday.
The proposal came about an hour after Johnson’s bid to reach the podium in the super-G ended with a crash high in the course when her right pole clipped a gate and sent her tumbling into the catch fence. This meant she didn’t get on the podium after winning gold on Sunday. But she did get… her man (apologies, we couldn’t help ourselves).
Now, before you join us in the world’s heaviest sigh over yet another finish line proposal, keep in mind that Johnson said she always dreamed of getting engaged at the Olympics. So her longtime boyfriend, Connor Watkins, wasn’t taking the spotlight off Johnson’s accomplishments, but giving her the kind of special moment she’d wanted.
“It felt fitting to combine two of my loves,” Johnson later told reporters. “It’s a special place at the Olympics.”
Still, not everyone was thrilled about seeing a proposal overtake the moment. And this comes amid another public display during this year’s Olympics — Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid’s confession that he cheated on his girlfriend and wanted her back.
All of which has some people wondering whether the Olympic Games are really the most appropriate time and place for declarations of love.
“Both the time, place and timing were completely wrong,” biathlon great Johannes Thingnes Boe, who won four gold medals at the Beijing Games, told the Norwegian state broadcaster about Laegreid’s confession.
“I can understand what he wants to have happen with his girlfriend,” retired German athlete Erik Lesser told The Associated Press. “But I just want to think about sport, want to see sport, want to talk about sport.”
As for Johnson, opinions online varied from happiness for the couple — with even pop star Taylor Swift congratulating her on Instagram — to annoyance about when her boyfriend chose to pop the question.
“I have strong opinions about men hijacking a woman’s major milestones to propose,” someone posted on X.
“Romantic timing or massive pressure move? Proposing right after she crashes (even if she got up) feels like turning her vulnerable moment into a public spectacle,” posted another person.
The American’s boyfriend proposed at the base of the super-G run in Cortina D’Ampezzo, and she happily said yes!
Olympians love love
And yet, love often does seem to be in the air during the Olympics. And there’s a storied history of Olympic declarations of love, Olympic couples and even the sometimes controversial Olympic proposal.
Back in 2016, Chatelaine called marriage proposals “the new Olympic spectacle.” That year, there were six proposals at the Games.
The 2024 Paris Olympics broke a record with nine proposals, including Liu Yuchen proposing to teammate Huang Ya Qiong after she won gold at the mixed doubles badminton final match, and French women’s skiff sailors Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon returning to shore after winning bronze to each of their respective partners getting down on one knee.
“Here in Paris we have broken a new record that is very close to our hearts: the most marriage proposals ever at an Olympic Games. These feelings of hope, inspiration and love will remain,” Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee, said at the closing ceremonies.
There was also a lot of backlash over those proposals, with many people arguing they overshadow the accomplishments of female athletes. But many others also said they loved seeing it, and cried watching people declare their love for each other and partners supporting each other.
Johnson’s proposal on Thursday was the first of these Games, and by all accounts, seems joyful. Especially after crashing and missing the podium, Johnson told reporters.
“I was feeling kind of stupid, which I think is kind of the moment you want the people you love around you,” she said.
“I think most people want to peak at the Olympics … I just extra peaked.”
Real-life couples heat up the games
As Reuters points out, a number of real-life couples bring an added level of chemistry to the competition this year.
In curling, for instance, three couples competed in the mixed doubles event, which ended on Tuesday. Canada’s Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant have said the introduction of mixed doubles into the Olympics was the spark that started their relationship. They have been married for four years.
There are also at least six romantic couples competing in ice skating, including U.S. ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates. They’ve been married since 2024.
Four-time Olympian Marie-Philip Poulin and two-time Olympic medallist Laura Stacey, are teammates on both the PWHL’s Montreal Victoire and the Canadian national team. The couple have been together since 2017 and married in 2024.
There are also athlete couples in skiing and skeleton.
“There have been many others who came together under the five Olympic Rings, and ended up exchanging two,” notes the International Society of Olympic Historians.
The society said there have been “husband and wife” combinations at the Winter Olympic Games since 1908, when two married couples competed in the first Olympic ice skating event held in London.
They were Phyllis and James Johnson, who won silver in the pairs, and Florence and Edgar Syers, who won bronze.
Public declarations of… cheating
While declarations of love at the Olympics might be common, declarations of cheating — at least, romantically — appear to be unprecedented.
In an interview with Norwegian network NRK after winning bronze in the men’s 20-kilometre individual race on Tuesday, Laegreid revealed on camera that he had been unfaithful “to the love of my life” in an apparent attempt to win her back.
His tearful confession didn’t go down well with critics who said it took the focus away from teammate Johan-Olav Botn who shot clean to win the gold medal in the event. It also didn’t go over well with his ex, who told a Norwegian paper “it is hard to forgive.”
On Wednesday, Laegreid aplogized, saying, “I deeply regret sharing this personal story on what was a day of celebration for Norwegian biathlon,” in a statement issued by the Norwegian team.
And yet, he may not be the Olympian having the least romantic week. That honour could go to a pair of engaged hockey rivals: Ronja Savolainen, vice-captain of Finland, and Sweden captain Anna Kjellbin.
The pair could face each other in the playoffs of the women’s Olympic ice hockey tournament.
“She’s my enemy out there,” Savolainen recently told Postmedia News. “I always want to win and make sure she’s the one who’s going home with the loss.”
Gold medal favourite Ilia Malinin of the United States finished 15th in the Olympic men’s free program, falling all the way from first to eighth place overall at Milano Cortina 2026.
