Love in the air! Meet Winter Olympics power couples at Milano Cortina

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Love in the air! Meet Winter Olympics power couples at Milano Cortina

Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY · USA TODAY Sports

Sat, Feb 14, 2026 ·

12 min read

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Snow isn't the only thing in the air at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics .

There will be no shortage of love as power couples gear up for the Games together. The Olympics run through Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) and some competitors won't have to spend the holiday apart from their significant other. Olympic medals are always the goal, but some athletes already have their prize.

"The skating career is short and finite, but the relationship is much, much longer," said Evan Bates, one half of the husband-and-wife ice dancing duo with Madison Chock . "The appreciation for everything that we've gone through over 15 years has grown as maybe you get closer towards the end."

In honor of Valentine's Day being celebrated during the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, see couples who have taken their love to the Winter Games .

Figure skating ice dance pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates of Team United States are partners both on and off the ice. The duo went on their first date on Chock's 16th birthday. Nothing came of the date, but the two friends stayed in touch and eventually started competing together in 2011. They started dating in 2017 and got engaged in 2022 following the Beijing Games, where they narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish, and tied the knot in a Hawaiian wedding in June 2024. The duo made their fourth Olympic appearance together (and their first as husband and wife) at the Milano Cortina Games after winning three consecutive World championships.

(James Lang-Imagn Images)

Bobsledders Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell of Team United States announced their engagement in June 2025. Love competed in track and field at UNLV before switching over to bobsled in late 2020. Less than two years later, she made her Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Powell shares a similar story and Love served as the catalyst. Love recruited Powell to switch to bobsled after the 2024 track and field season. Less than two years since starting the sport, he's set to make his Olympic debut in Milano Cortina.

(Al Bello, Getty Images)

Snowboarders Red Gerard and Hailey Langland first met on the slopes in Mount Hood, Oregon, at age 12 and remained good friends until their "friendship developed into a relationship," according to Gerard. The duo made it official several years later before their respective Olympic debuts in PyeongChang in 2018, where Gerard went on to become the youngest Olympic snowboarding champion after winning gold in slopestyle at age 17.

(Joe Scarnici, Getty Images for JBL)

Skiers Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Mikaela Shiffrin have been dating since early 2021, and made their relationship Instagram-official a year later in June. The couple announced their engagement in April 2024. Shiffrin (American) has three Olympic medals, including two golds (Slalom in 2014; Giant Slalom in 2018) and one silver medal (Super Combined in 2018). Kilde (Norwegian) won two medals at the 2022 Beijing Games, a silver in Alpine Combined and bronze in super-G.

(Jamie McCarthy, Getty Images)

Oksana Masters and Aaron Pikee, both seven-time Paralympians in Para Nordic skiing, first crossed paths at an U.S. para Nordic development event in 2013 but connected at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics after sharing a gondola ride together. Pike recreated the cable car ride eight years later in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park when he proposed to Masters.

(Leon Bennett, Getty Images)

Cornelius Kersten and Ellia Smeding of Team Great Britain co-founded the coffee company Brew 22 in 2020 to fund their journey to the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Both are still involved in the coffee company, which has evolved to feature five flavors to represent each Olympic ring.

Smeding finished 23rd in the 1000m and 27th in 1500m at Beijing 2022. Smeding may have been far off the podium, but made history as the first female long track speed skater to represent Great Britain since 1980. Kersten's best result came with his ninth-place finish in the 1,000m

(Dean Mouhtaropoulos, Getty Images)

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Love stories behind the world’s Olympic athletes

In honor of Valentine's Day being celebrated during the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, see couples who have taken their love to the Winter Games .

Figure skating ice dance pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates of Team United States are partners both on and off the ice. The duo went on their first date on Chock's 16th birthday. Nothing came of the date, but the two friends stayed in touch and eventually started competing together in 2011. They started dating in 2017 and got engaged in 2022 following the Beijing Games, where they narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish, and tied the knot in a Hawaiian wedding in June 2024. The duo made their fourth Olympic appearance together (and their first as husband and wife) at the Milano Cortina Games after winning three consecutive World championships.

(James Lang-Imagn Images)

Each Olympic partnership is unique. Some Olympic duos compete together, like Bates and Chock, while others participate in the same discipline, including American snowboarders Red Gerard and Hailey Langland. There's partners in completely different sports, such as ice hockey star Hilary Knight and speed skater Brittany Bowe, and even some lovebirds representing different countries, like Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen.

Here are a few of the most notable partnerships at the 2026 Winter Olympics:

Madison Chock and Evan Bates

Nationality: American
Discipline:Figure skating — Ice Dance
Olympic medals: The pair has three Olympic medals (one gold in 2022 team event, gold in the 2026 team event and silver in the 2026 ice dance event).

Figure skating ice dance pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates are partners both on and off the ice. The duo went on their first date at a Bahama Breeze restaurant on Chock's 16th birthday, where Bates gifted her a black zip-up sweater from Pink. Nothing came of the date, but the two friends stayed in touch and eventually started competing together after both parted ways with their previous partners in 2011.

"We genuinely enjoy each other's company a lot," Bates said at the USOPC media summit in October. "Our relationship was a friendship first. And I think that is a big reason why we just like each other.

Their relationship slowly blossomed and they started dating in 2017. Chock and Bates got engaged in June 2022 following the Beijing Games, where they narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish, and tied the knot in a Hawaiian wedding in June 2024. The duo made their fourth Olympic appearance together (and their first as husband and wife) at the Milano Cortina Games after winning three consecutive World championships.

Winning Olympic gold, however, isn't the sole goal for Chock and Bates. They strive to "grow together as a team and as a couple," said Chock, who believed the connectedness would lead to them standing on top of the podium.

"Skating and winning (an) Olympic gold medal was always the top priority, and it still is for us, but the focus on our relationship and the understanding of how that pursuit of excellence benefits our relationship, especially if we allow it to, has become more of a priority," Bates added.

Hilary Knight and Brittany Bowe

Nationality: American
Discipline:Ice hockey (Knight), speed skating (Bowe)
Olympic medals: Knight has four medals (one gold in 2018 and three silvers in 2010, 2014, 2022), while Bowe has two bronze medals (1000m in 2018 and Team Pursuit 6 Laps in 2022).

There's a good chance that if you enter the home of Olympic power couple Hilary Knight and Brittany Bowe, sports will be playing on the television.

"Whether it's playoffs, regular season, we're watching everything sports 24/7," Knight said at the USOPC media summit in October, adding that's one of the "awesome" perks of dating a fellow athlete.

Knight and Bowe first met at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games amid strict COVID-19 protocols. The duo connected on fully masked strolls that were cute, but not necessarily romantic, Knight recalled. Bowe walked away with bronze in the 1000m, but she told People that her time with Knight "was the biggest win coming out of Beijing."

"(It was) a very unique way to meet someone, but it was also kind of cool because we felt like we were in this bubble," Bowe said. "No outside distractions. And we really had a lot of time just to get to know each other."

"We have normal human conversations and then we have Olympic athlete conversations about tactical and technical parts of our training," Knight said. "(Bowe's) so intentional and thoughtful with preparation and it's something that I hope that's rubbed off on me in the right way. But it's really incredible when you put two different sports side by side and see how they're similar and how they're different as well."

Knight (hockey) and Bowe (speed skating) started dating in December 2022. The relationship helped Knight find the strength to publicly come out a year later in 2023. Knight said they understand each other on a different level as two elite athletes with prolonged careers. Milano Cortina marks Knight's fifth Games and Bowe's fourth.

Chloe Kim and Myles Garrett

Nationality: American
Discipline:Snowboard halfpipe (Kim)
Olympic medals: Kim has two gold medals (2018, 2022) and one silver (2026)

Garrett may not be an Olympian, but he can relate to being an elite. The Cleveland Browns ' defensive end and two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year set the NFL's single-season sack record (23) in January. Kim and Garrett made their first public appearance together at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in Japan in May 2025. The duo confirmed their relationship in November when Kim attended a Browns game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Garrett returned the favor. He was front and center at the 2026 Winter Olympics to watch Kim try and complete a historic three-peat in the women's snowboard halfpipe event. He donned a sweater with Kim's face on it.

"We're both just so supportive of one another," Garrett said of their relationship. "She's always texting, she's always calling to see how I'm doing during the year and I'm doing the same right now, checking on her, seeing how she's feeling, emotionally and physically."

In an interview with USA TODAY Sports back in December, Kim said that she had "no idea" who Garrett was before they met and later began dating.

"I grew up in a very Korean household, so we didn't really watch American sports, or sports in general. It was whatever my dad was into. I guess my dad did watch football when he first came to America, but when I came around, it was a lot of, like, golf, tennis, things of that sort. So it's actually funny that we're in this position right now, because I had no idea who he was. Like, zero idea," Kim said.

CHLOE KIM: Who is Chloe Kim's boyfriend? What to know about Myles Garrett

Chloe Kim of the United States gets a hug from Cleveland Browns player Myles Garrett after the first run in the women's halfpipe final during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Livigno Snow Park on Feb 12, 2026 in Livigno, Italy.

Red Gerard and Hailey Langland

Nationality: American
Discipline:Snowboarding
Olympic medals: Gerard has one gold slopestyle medal (2018)

The snowboarders first met on the slopes in Mount Hood, Oregon, at age 12 and remained good friends until their "friendship developed into a relationship," according to Gerard. The duo made it official several years later before their respective Olympic debuts in PyeongChang in 2018, where Gerard went on to become the youngest Olympic snowboarding champion after winning gold in slopestyle at age 17.

Langland and Gerard agree that dating someone that competes in the same sport comes with a lot of benefits: They understand each other. They travel the world together. They push each other to be better.

Gerard described Langland as the "chill" one in the relationship. "She's more relaxed and keeps me relaxed," he joked.

Langland said her beau is a "great athlete and great advocate for the sport."

She added, "I look up to him."

Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde

Nationality: American (Shiffrin), Norwegian (Kilde)
Discipline:Alpine skiing
Oympic medals: Shiffrin has three, including two golds (Slalom in 2014; Giant Slalom in 2018) and one silver medal (Super Combined in 2018). Kilde won two medals at the 2022 Beijing Games, a silver in Alpine Combined and bronze in super-G.

Kilde and Shiffrin have been dating since early 2021, and made their relationship Instagram-official a year later in June. The couple announced their engagement in April 2024. Shiffrin and Kilde are both set to compete in their fourth Games, but their journey to Milano Cortina hasn't been without challenges.

In January 2024, Kilde suffered a severe crash during a downhill race in Switzerland that left him with injuries to his calf and shoulder. He faced an additional setback during his recovery after a shoulder infection led to sepsis and required additional surgery. Kilde returned to the World Cup circuit in November ahead of the Milano Cortina Games, an emotional moment for both Kilde and Shiffrin. "I'm so proud of him," she told local media.

Kilde has supported Shiffrin through her own adversity. Shiffrin suffered severe muscle trauma and a puncture wound in her abdomen during a November 2024 crash, but has returned to form ahead of Milano Cortina.

"We've been a rock for each other," Kilde said in October. "We're always supporting each other."

Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell

Nationality: American
Discipline:Bobsled

The bobsledders have nerves of steel as they steer their way to the ... wedding altar. Love and Powell announced their engagement in June 2025, with Powell writing on Instagram, "I love you to the moon and back and infinitely more Kaysha Love. I always have and I always will."

Love competed in track and field at UNLV before switching over to bobsled in late 2020. Less than two years later, she made her Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. Powell shares a similar story and Love served as the catalyst. Love recruited Powell to switch to bobsled after the 2024 track and field season. Less than two years since starting the sport, he's now set to make his Olympic debut in Milano Cortina.

Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike

Nationality: American
Discipline:Para Nordic skiing
Paralympic medals: Masters has 19 Paralympic medals (nine gold, seven silver, three bronze)

Masters has competed in every Summer and Winter Paralympics since 2012 and is the most decorated U.S. Winter Paralympian of all-time with 14 medals, in addition to five Summer Paralympic medals, but Masters told NBC that she "didn't start succeeding as an athlete until (Pike) came into my life."

Masters and Pike, both seven-time Paralympians, first crossed paths at an U.S. para Nordic development event in 2013 but connected at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics after sharing a gondola ride together. Pike recreated the cable car ride eight years later in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park when he proposed to Masters.

Masters said Pike "helped me really feel confident in my abilities and … celebrate the things that I normally diminish. When I have really bad days, he understands it. I understand his. And when the really good days come, they're even better, because you're celebrating them with your best friend. … It's our secret weapon that we have each other."

Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen

Nationality: Sweden (Kjellbin), Finland (Savolainen)
Discipline:Women's ice hockey
Olympic medals: Savolainen has two bronze medals (2018, 2022)

This couple's heated rivalry could spice up the ice at Milano Cortina. Swedish hockey defender Anna Kjellbin and Finnish defender Ronja Savolainen got engaged in 2024 after nearly five years of dating, but on the ice, "she's my enemy. That's how it goes," Savolainen said in 2024.

Kjellbin and Savolainen are used to facing off against each other because they're both in the PWHL. Kjellbin plays for the Toronto Sceptres and Savolainen plays for the Ottawa Charge. Only a two-hour drive separates them.

"We were super lucky that we are so close to each other. It was the best thing that could happen," Savolainen said. "We're in the same country, at least, the same side of the world, so I'm super happy."

The Sweden and Finland women's hockey teams aren't scheduled to face each other in the round-robin preliminaries, but the couple could meet in the later medal rounds. Savolainen has won two bronze medals with Team Finland, while Kjellbin is set to make her second Winter Games appearance with Team Sweden.

Cornelius Kersten and Ellia Smeding

Nationality: British
Discipline:Speed skating

Love is brewing for these British speed skaters. Kersten and Smeding co-founded the coffee company Brew 22 in 2020 to fund their journey to the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Both are still involved in the coffee company, which has evolved to feature five flavors to represent each Olympic ring.

Smeding finished 23rd in the 1000m and 27th in 1500m at Beijing 2022. Smeding may have been far off the podium, but made history as the first female long track speed skater to represent Great Britain since 1980. Kersten's best result came with his ninth-place finish in the 1,000m.

Kersten and Smeding have each dealt with injuries in the lead-up to Milano Cortina. Smeding worked her way back from a hip injury to qualify for her second Olympic Games, but Kersten couldn't find his footing after suffering torn obliques and a torn labral in a bad crash in 2023. Smeding credits Kersten with her recovery.

"I've seen Cornelius struggle with injuries and his ongoing one now. Knowing how he's dealt with injuries really gave me a guideline of staying optimistic and confident and being patient with my time," she said in May 2025.

Contributing: John Leuzzi

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meet 2026 Winter Olympics power couples like Madison Chock, Evan Bates

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