Meet the ability {couples} of the 2026 Video games : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4842x3228+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1c%2Fe8%2F8f357783429a82de81225be8ddaf%2Fgettyimages-1384448164.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4842x3228+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F1c%2Fe8%2F8f357783429a82de81225be8ddaf%2Fgettyimages-1384448164.jpg" class="img" alt="Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike at the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics. They bonded at a Para Nordic competition in 2013 over their love of coffee." fetchpriority="high"/> Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike on the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics. They bonded at a Para Nordic competitors in 2013 over their love of espresso. Michael Steele/Getty Pictures conceal caption

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Michael Steele/Getty Pictures Need extra Olympics updates? Subscribe right here to get our e-newsletter, Rachel Goes to the Video games, delivered to your inbox for a behind-the-scenes have a look at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

MILAN — A whole bunch of unbelievable athletes are collaborating in these Winter Video games. And quite a few them simply occur to be courting — or engaged or married to — one another.

Some take part in the identical sports activities, as teammates and even opponents, whereas others come from completely different athletic backgrounds.

Take U.S. Paralympians Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike, who each compete in a number of summer season and winter sports activities. They first met at a Para Nordic competitors in 2013, the place they bonded over their love of espresso, earlier than connecting on a deeper degree on the 2014 Sochi Video games.

"We had a very particular second the place we type of realized on a gondola that that is greater than only a pal — like a hug that spoke a thousand phrases type of factor," Masters instructed NPR in October. "[I] realized, 'Oh my gosh, this isn't simply one thing like a small attraction right here.'"

Quick ahead to 2022, and Pike proposed to Masters on a gondola in Wyoming. Masters has very publicly gone gown purchasing — even bringing her two Paris 2024 gold medals together with her — however they have not introduced a marriage date but. They stated they have been contemplating getting married after the Paralympics in Italy, whereas their households are already gathered collectively.

"In Italy can be an ideal approach for our without end journey [to] begin collectively, due to snowboarding within the mountains," Masters stated. "However, then, you have to ask him, too — extra — as a result of he is doing nothing for the planning in any respect."

NPR did ask Pike.

"I made a joke one time like: I proposed, now it is your flip," he stated with fun. "And he or she is not going to let that go."

Under are among the Group USA winter power-couples to know, plus a number of honorable mentions.

Hilary Knight and Brittany Bowe On the socially-distanced Beijing Video games in 2022, Hilary Knight requested Brittany Bowe if she wished to go for a stroll.

"That grew to become our routine," stated Bowe. "We might stroll the Village after dinner and simply speak. It was cool residing in a bubble and never having exterior distractions."

Now they're sharing one other Olympics collectively.

It is the fifth for Knight, the ladies's hockey captain and all-time main scorer for Group USA, and the fourth for Bowe, a two-time medalist in long-track velocity skating. And this time, they are not remoted in a bubble.

"It is all the time good to have the ability to help Hilary, and once we can see one another's occasions," Bowe stated after attending Knight's first match. "Her household was there, my entire household was there. It simply brings further vitality to the ambiance."

Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3390x1907+0+461/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcf%2Fc9%2Fbef6dee04faea906183f453c0ac1%2Fgettyimages-2204224056.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3390x1907+0+461/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcf%2Fc9%2Fbef6dee04faea906183f453c0ac1%2Fgettyimages-2204224056.jpg" class="img" alt="Bobsledders Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell celebrate after Love won a race in Lake Placid, N.Y., in March 2025. The couple is now engaged." loading="lazy"/> Bobsledders Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell rejoice after Love gained a race in Lake Placid, N.Y., in March 2025. The couple is now engaged. Al Bello/Getty Pictures conceal caption

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Al Bello/Getty Pictures Bobsled athletes Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell met after they have been monitor and discipline stars at their respective faculties. Love switched to bobsled and made the 2022 Olympics, then urged Powell to do the identical.

"She satisfied me to go to #SlideToGlory [a USA recruitment event,] which I used to be very proof against, however she talked me into it, and I am so grateful that she did," Powell stated from Cortina.

They bought engaged in July 2025. Now, they're Olympic teammates.

"It is the best factor on the planet," Powell added. "I am travelling the world for the primary time in my life, chasing the dream, with the lady I like and my finest pal. It would not get cooler than that."

Crimson Gerard and Hailey Langland <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3631x2042+0+283/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6f%2F07%2F4105735b487ba0622fe0ec90e703%2Fgettyimages-1467468021.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3631x2042+0+283/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6f%2F07%2F4105735b487ba0622fe0ec90e703%2Fgettyimages-1467468021.jpg" class="img" alt="Snowboarders Red Gerard and Hailey Langland at an event in 2023 at Park City, Utah." loading="lazy"/> Snowboarders Crimson Gerard and Hailey Langland at an occasion in 2023 at Park Metropolis, Utah. Joe Scarnici/Getty Pictures for JBL conceal caption

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Joe Scarnici/Getty Pictures for JBL Snowboarders Crimson Gerard and Hailey Langland have recognized one another since they have been 12, and have been in a relationship for the previous eight years.

They each competed on the Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018 — the place Gerard gained gold — and 2022 in Beijing. He's competing once more this yr. She's sidelined by an ACL harm, however staying with him and his mother and father in Italy.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates Evan Bates took Madison Chock on a date on her sixteenth birthday, although it did not instantly result in something.

A number of years later, in 2011, they partnered up in ice dance. Six years later, Bates confessed his emotions.

"Effectively, I just about instructed Maddie that I liked her," Bates instructed NBC in 2018. "Final yr I instructed (her) how I actually felt and that modified issues quite a bit."

The 2 bought engaged in 2022 and married in the summertime of 2024 in Hawaii, the place Chock's mother and father are from. Bates instructed NPR in October that whereas "the skating profession is brief and finite, the connection is way, for much longer."

"We love what we do, however we additionally actually love one another," Chock added. "And we're capable of take this ardour and use it to foster our connection as a pair. And I believe from that we have grown quite a bit by way of our sport, and that is been such an amazing instructor for us."

They are not the one ice dance energy couple on Group USA: Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik have been companions on and off the ice since 2022.

Different {couples} to know <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4529x2548+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa8%2F48%2F7635105c42ee8cac77b06b510854%2Fgettyimages-1371037201.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4529x2548+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa8%2F48%2F7635105c42ee8cac77b06b510854%2Fgettyimages-1371037201.jpg" class="img" alt="Marie-Philip Poulin, right, and Laura Stacey of Team Canada celebrate after winning the hockey gold medal match against Team United States." loading="lazy"/> Marie-Philip Poulin, proper, and Laura Stacey of Group Canada rejoice after successful the hockey gold medal match in opposition to Group United States. Elsa/Getty Pictures conceal caption

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Elsa/Getty Pictures Hockey greats Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey play collectively for the Montreal Victoire, and for Group Canada (of which Poulin is the captain). They have been collectively since 2017 and married since 2024. Kim Meylemans and Nicole Silveira are each skeleton racers, representing opposing groups (Belgium and Brazil). They're additionally newlyweds, having married lower than a yr in the past after sparking up a relationship in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen met whereas enjoying collectively within the Swedish professional girls's hockey league, earlier than getting signed to separate groups in Canada. The now-fiances are enjoying for separate groups on the Olympics, too: Sweden and Finland. There are three married {couples} on this yr's 10-team blended doubles curling discipline: Italian ice dancers Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri have been collectively since 2009, with the on-ice PDA to show it. Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant of Canada, Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann, and Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten of Norway. [ad_2] Source link