How these sports couples are balancing Olympic training and wedding planning
When you think of famous couples in sports, your mind may immediately spring to Laura and Jason Kenny, a romance forged in track cycling.
If winter sports is your thing, you may even be compelled to think of superstar ski couple Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who recently announced their engagement.
This summer, however, there are a handful of couples that are taking competing in the ‘City of Love’ - as Paris is frequently referred to - quite literally.
While vying for golds in their respective events, they are also planning their weddings to follow Paris 2024 - quite the schedule!
However when you participate in the same sport, understanding one another’s schedules, and planning around Games every four years become a little bit easier.
Take Justine Wong-Orantes, for example, and fiancé Andrew Pham, who both play volleyball.
“When we first got engaged, the Olympics were always in the back of my mind,” American hopeful Wong-Orantes told The Knot.
“I didn’t want to get married and then have to play an eight or nine-month season abroad and be away from him.
“I asked him if he’d be okay with having a long engagement and getting married after the Olympics, then I could be home for good – since he plays volleyball, he understands my lifestyle.”
For others, their respective sport brought them to find their significant other, sometimes in unconventional ways.
Water Polo star Alex Bowen was set up on a blind date by his teammate, where he met Hilary Hansen.
“I thought, ‘Okay, I’m not going to hear from this guy for a month, because he’s going to leave for the Olympics,” Hansen recalls.
“The next thing I knew, I was getting FaceTimes from Tokyo every day.”
While it may not necessarily be in the same vein, there is a certain level of commitment that comes with planning a wedding, much like devoting your life to your chosen discipline.
Although on different scales, they’re still ready to channel that energy into planning.
Two-time Olympic swimmer Abbey Weitzeil is ‘thriving’ in the balancing act of it all, as she aims to compete in Paris and then marry fiancé Michael Jensen.
“I thrive under pressure, I always have!” she says.
Women’s water polo star Maggie Steffens and partner Tom Gehret will wed two weeks after a prospective gold medal match, while rugby’s Charlotte Caslick is set to marry fellow Aussie rugby player Lewis Holland after four years of being engaged.
The first stop for each of these couples, though, is Paris 2024 and a chance to bid for what could be their first gold of the summer, soon followed by a wedding band.