Alice Finot proposes to boyfriend with Olympic pin after breaking European steeplechase record at Paris 2024

On 6 August, French track and field athlete Alice Finot made the ultimate pin swap.

The 33-year-old first-time Olympian finished fourth in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase, narrowly missing the podium by just three seconds. She did, however, break the European steeplechase record with a remarkable time of 8:58.67.

But that time was not only a European record for Finot; it also marked a promise she had made to herself before the race.

"I told myself that if I ran under nine minutes, knowing that nine is my lucky number and that we’ve been together for nine years, then I would propose," Finot said.

And, true to her word, just moments after the race, Finot dropped to one knee on the track and presented a pin to her tearful boyfriend, triathlete Bruno Martinez Bargiela from Spain.

This wasn’t just any pin — it was the one she’d raced with, engraved with the words "Love is in Paris."

Bargiela excitedly accepted, and as the crowd cheered, Finot pinned it to his shirt, her version of slipping a ring on his finger, sealing their love in the City of Light.

“I don’t like doing things like everyone else,” Finot later said with a smile. “Since he hadn’t done it yet, I thought maybe it was up to me.”

The romantic gesture wasn't an isolated event at the Olympics. Pablo Simonet, a player for the Argentinian men's national handball team, proposed to hockey player Maria Campoy in the Olympic Village, while badminton player Huang Yaqiong experienced a similar surprise when her boyfriend proposed right after she won the gold medal.

As Finot's pin suggests, love definitely is in Paris.