partner or adversary couples… the lovers of the Olympics in pictures

They sometimes evolve in the same discipline, for the same country or find themselves adversaries. The lovers of the Olympic Games have nothing to do with the eyes of others and have chosen to display their love in broad daylight. This is the case of the American Mikaela Shiffrin, who, if she lives through complicated Games from a sporting point of view, can count on the support of her lover, the Norwegian Aleksander Kilde. The two alpine ski stars understand each other better than anyone. They started getting closer in 2020, right in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. At the time, the young woman had just lost her father and found in her future lover an attentive ear on social networks. Their online friendship turned into real feelings. While the 2018 Olympic champion had several tricky races in the first week, her boyfriend posted a moving message to support her. As for her, she displayed her pride after her companion’s medals in Super-G and combined.

Redmond Gerard and Hailey Langland also evolve in the same environment. And it was from an early age that the two Americans, stars of snowboarding, met. At the age of 12, they met, before letting their feelings speak five years later, a few weeks before the start of the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang. The young man then became shortly after the youngest male Olympic champion in an individual event in the history of the Winter Games, at 17 years old. He is expected from Monday on a Big Air snowboard in Beijing. Just like Hailey Langland, whose events were postponed on Sunday due to the weather.

There is a discipline where couples reign more than ever: figure skating. Each Olympics offers the public its share of beautiful love stories. This year, it is the Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates and the Japanese Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto who thrill the public with their chemistry. The first met in high school. “Evan took me out to dinner for my sixth birthday,” Madison Chock told Inside Edition. “I really had fun, he gave me a sweatshirt with turquoise letters. It was a very long time ago but it was our first official meeting. Since then, they have been doing wonders on the ice. They have won three gold medals and six silver medals at the US National Championships and won the bronze medal at the 2018 Olympics. They also have two gold medals from the Four Continents Championships and three silver medals at the Grand End Price. The Japanese Misato Komatsubara and Tim Koleto, for their part, started skating together in 2016 and got married the following year. To be able to participate in competitions with his beautiful, Tim Koleto, born in Montana, in the United States, chose to take Japanese nationality, where his wife is from. He even had his official name changed to Takeru Komatsubara. The couple won bronze at the start of the Olympics in the team event.

Blayre Turnbull and Ryan Sommer are also members of the same team. But if they defend the colors of Canada, their sports do not allow them to spend time together. The first is a hockey player while her boyfriend is a bobsleigh specialist. Their preparation forced them to live far apart, until their reunion, finally, on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. “Give me a cooler place to find your fiancé after being separated for 3 months, I’m waiting…”, wrote the young woman on Instagram.

For her part, the American Emily Sweeney fell in love with the Italian Dominik Fischnaller, who, like her, is a luge specialist. They too started dating when they were teenagers and then grew together, to the point of each shining in Beijing. The Italian won bronze in the men’s singles event. Emily Sweeney is making her comeback to the Olympics after a terrible accident at the 2018 Games in which she broke her neck and back. Lately, the couple has been tested by the pandemic. The two have not been able to see each other for months, each stranded in his country.

The Brazilian Nicole Rocha Silveira and the Belgian Kim Meylemans, for their part, are in love in life but adversary on the track. The two young women are skeleton specialists. And it was on the circuit, several years ago, that they met. “People always imagine that we are adversaries, but skeleton is a sport where in fact, you are mainly fighting against the clock. It’s not like we walk into a ring to fight each other. I think it’s a bit unrealistic to think that we are enemies, “said Belgian Kim Meylemans, quoted by NBC. The latter had a complicated start to the Olympics since she was placed in solitary confinement after a positive test for covid-19. After a video of her in tears, she was finally able to reach the Olympic village, where she had to stay in her room until she tested negative. Unfortunately, the competition did not smile more on the young woman, who did not obtain the desired result. She was comforted by her partner after her run. “It would have been more difficult without her. I can’t wait to be a normal person again and get home as soon as possible. China is not among my favorite destinations at the moment,” she said.

They too are adversaries. Ronja Savolainen and Anna Kjellbin are both hockey players, on rival teams. The first defends Finland and the second evolves with Sweden. The two women have been in love for two years. Ronja Savolainen, recently explained to suffer from attention disorders and hyperactivity and have chosen to talk about it thanks to his companion. They play together as a club in Luleå HF/MSSK of the Swedish Women’s Hockey League.

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