Love is in the air at PyeongChang 2018

14 | 2 | 2018

This Valentine’s Day is particularly special for some Olympians who get to compete at PyeongChang 2018 with their partner by their side.

The addition of mixed curling at these Games has brought with it the opportunity for couples to compete alongside one another, with at least two pairs who have found romance on their quest for Olympic gold. Anastasia Bryzgalova and Aleksandr Krushelnitckii (OAR) married last year after first meeting on the junior curling circuit in Russia and Norway's Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregottem started dating in 2012 through the sport.

Ice skating has long been a sport where couples share a life on and off the ice, with at least eight couples competing in PyeongChang, including Britain’s Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland, USA’s Alexa Scimeca Knierem and Chris Knierem and French pair Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac.

US bobsled teammates and husband and wife duo Elana Meyers Taylor and Nic Taylor have also chosen to share both a sport and a life together. The two, who were married in 2014, train and compete together, sometimes even in the same sled following a rule change in 2014 that allowed mixed-gender teams. At PyeongChang 2018 Nic will be cheering world champion and Olympic silver medallist Elana when she competes for gold next week.

Meanwhile, there are other Olympians who have crossed national borders to find love. US snowboarder Jamie Anderson and Canada’s Tyler Nicholson are turning heads in PyeongChang. It was Nicholson – not Anderson’s US teammates - who was the first to congratulate Anderson when she won gold in the women’s slopestyle earlier this week. While German bodsledder Christian Poser and USA’s Jamie Greubel Poser have overcome language and distance barriers to make their Olympic relationship work.

Image: Getty Images / IOC