2026 Winter Games Power Couples: Rivals, Teammates and Partners

MILAN — At the 2026 Milan–Cortina Winter Games and Paralympics, a notable number of elite athletes are competing alongside romantic partners, including spouses, fiancés and long-term partners. Some pairs are teammates or direct rivals on the same field of play; others come from different disciplines but travel and train together. Stories in Milan range from Paralympians Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike — who first met at a Para Nordic meet in 2013, reconnected at Sochi 2014 and were engaged after a 2022 gondola proposal — to longtime couples who balance household life with elite schedules. Their presence highlights how intimate relationships intersect with national teams, selection, recovery and media attention at a major multisport Games.

• Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike first met at a Para Nordic competition in 2013, reconnected at the 2014 Sochi Games, and Pike proposed in 2022 on a Wyoming gondola; they discussed marrying after the Paralympics in Italy.
• Hilary Knight (her fifth Olympics) and Brittany Bowe (her fourth Olympic appearance, two-time long-track medalist) began a routine of nightly walks while isolated at Beijing 2022 and now support each other at Milan–Cortina events.
• Bobsledders Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell, both former collegiate track athletes, converted to sliding disciplines; Love made the 2022 Olympic team and the couple became engaged in July 2025.
• Red Gerard (2018 Olympic snowboard gold medalist) and Hailey Langland have been together for about eight years; Gerard is competing in 2026 while Langland is sidelined with an ACL injury and staying in Italy.
• Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates partnered on the ice in 2011, were engaged in 2022 and married in summer 2024 in Hawaii; they emphasize that the relationship outlasts competitive careers.
• International pairings include Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey (together since 2017, married 2024) for Canada, plus mixed-nationality couples who race on opposing teams in skeleton, hockey and other sports.
• Several couples appear across disciplines and nations in Milan–Cortina, including married pairs competing in mixed-doubles curling and national-league hockey teammates now playing on separate Olympic rosters.

Background

Close relationships among elite athletes are not new, but the last decade has intensified visibility: expanded social media, athlete-led media coverage and frequent international travel place partners repeatedly in public view. The COVID-19 pandemic and the strict „bubble” environment at Beijing 2022 created concentrated social settings where friendships and romances could deepen on compressed timelines. Historically, mixed relationships have appeared in many Games — teammates, coach-athlete pairings and cross-national partnerships — but Milan–Cortina highlights how modern athletes manage dual roles as domestic partners and national representatives. National federations have generally adapted selection and accommodation policies rather than restrict relationships, leaving teams to balance privacy, fairness and logistical realities.

For Paralympic athletes in particular, multi-sport participation is common and can bring couples together across summer and winter calendars; Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike are examples of athletes who compete in both seasonal cycles. Ice dance and pair sports have long produced on-ice couples because partnership demands close daily training, while team sports and sliding disciplines create different dynamics — shared travel and equipment logistics versus single-event focus. Sponsorship and brand deals also change the calculus: shared profiles can be appealing commercially, but can also intensify scrutiny. The Milan–Cortina environment — with expanded media teams and fan streaming — amplifies both the rewards and pressures of competing as a couple.

Main event narratives

Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike met at a Para Nordic competition in 2013 and felt an instant connection that deepened during the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Games. Masters has described a moment on a gondola when the pair realized their relationship had moved beyond friendship. Pike proposed to Masters on a Wyoming gondola in 2022; Masters later went dress shopping with her Paris 2024 gold medals in tow. The couple has not announced a final wedding date, but in interviews they said they were considering getting married after the Paralympics in Italy, noting family gatherings and intentions to celebrate in a mountainous, skiing-centric setting.

Hilary Knight and Brittany Bowe’s relationship formed in the unique context of the Beijing 2022 Olympic bubble: nightly walks through the Village became a routine and a source of privacy amid restrictions. Knight, the long-time captain and all-time leading scorer for the U.S. women’s hockey team, is competing in her fifth Olympics; Bowe, a two-time long-track speed skating medalist, is in her fourth. Both athletes describe mutual support for event schedules and family attendance as energizing, and they have spoken publicly about how attending each other’s competitions lifts morale for both their families and teammates.

Kaysha Love and Hunter Powell transitioned from collegiate track to bobsled after Love’s switch yielded a spot at the 2022 Olympics; she encouraged Powell to attend a Slide To Glory recruitment event and he joined the sliding ranks. The couple got engaged in July 2025 and are now teammates on the World Cup and Olympic circuit, describing the experience of traveling together and sharing performance goals as uniquely rewarding. Their trajectory underscores the porous borders between sports pathways — how recruitment events and athlete networks can create both career shifts and personal partnerships.

Red Gerard and Hailey Langland have been friends since age 12 and romantically involved for roughly eight years. Gerard, who won Olympic snowboard gold in PyeongChang 2018 and competed again in Beijing 2022, is part of the U.S. snowboard team in 2026; Langland remains in Italy while recovering from an ACL injury and supporting Gerard and his family. Their story illustrates common trade-offs for athletes managing recovery, travel and emotional labor when one partner is sidelined.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates have a long partnership on and off the ice: a teenage date, a 2011 competitive partnership, a public coming-together of feelings in the late 2010s, engagement in 2022 and a wedding in Hawaii in summer 2024. Both emphasize the finite nature of skating careers versus the long-term view they take of their relationship, noting that mutual passion for the sport has strengthened their bond and helped them weather slumps and injuries.

Analysis & Implications

Relationships between elite athletes can produce tangible competitive benefits: emotional support, synchronized training schedules and shared recovery strategies can enhance performance and resilience. Co-habiting partners frequently coordinate sleep, nutrition and physiotherapy, which can produce marginal gains in sports measured by hundredths of seconds. At the same time, a shared relationship can create conflict over selection decisions, travel priorities and press attention; federations must navigate perceptions of favoritism and manage logistics to avoid perceived inequity among teammates.

National teams wrestle with privacy and publicity: some athletes choose to be public about their partnerships and use them to build narratives and sponsor appeal, while others keep relationships low-profile to minimize distraction. The media impulse to humanize athletes through relationship stories can increase followers and marketability, but it also invites scrutiny into domestic life and medical privacy when injuries occur. From a governance angle, most federations lack prescriptive rules on athlete relationships and instead rely on codes of conduct; that approach places emphasis on individual professionalism and team culture to manage potential conflicts.

Internationally, mixed-nationality relationships raise additional layers: couples may train in one country while competing for another, and cross-border partnerships underscore the transnational nature of elite sport labor. These dynamics can influence where athletes base themselves for training, how national funding is allocated and how federations coordinate access to coaches and facilities. As the modern athlete increasingly pursues multi-sport careers, especially within Paralympic circles, federations and sponsors will need policies that respect personal lives while preserving fair selection and competition integrity.

The table above samples prominent couples and their competitive milestones to clarify timelines and the overlap between domestic life and sporting careers. It illustrates common patterns: early acquaintance through sport, partnership formed within training ecosystems, and later public milestones such as proposals or weddings that often occur between Olympic cycles. For fans and federations alike, these timelines matter because they affect training bases, sponsorship, and availability for events.

Reactions & quotes

Athletes and spokespeople often frame these relationships in human terms while acknowledging practical trade-offs. Masters and Pike have described both quiet intimacy and public milestones in interviews, framing their relationship as rooted in shared competition and travel.

“We had a really special moment … on a gondola that this is more than just a friend — like a hug that spoke a thousand words.”

Oksana Masters, Paralympian

The gondola memory has become a recurrent anecdote for the couple, used to illustrate how travel and sport can accelerate closeness. Pike has likewise described the couple dynamic with humor and warmth, noting mutual teasing around proposals and planning.

“I made a joke one time like: I proposed, now it’s your turn.”

Aaron Pike, Paralympian

In ice dance, Chock and Bates place emphasis on the long arc of their relationship versus the short span of competitive careers. Their public comments focus on partnership as both a performance advantage and a life decision beyond sport.

“The skating career is short and finite, the relationship is much, much longer.”

Evan Bates, ice dancer

Unconfirmed

• Exact wedding date for Oksana Masters and Aaron Pike remains unannounced; reports indicate they discussed marrying after the Paralympics in Italy but no official plan has been published.
• Final competitive plans for Hailey Langland during recovery (return-to-competition timeline) have not been publicly confirmed by her medical team.
• Specific team policies, if any, that influenced seating, hotel arrangements or travel for several mixed-nationality couples in Milan–Cortina have not been disclosed by all federations.

Bottom line

Relationships among athletes at Milan–Cortina reflect broader shifts in elite sport: athletes now navigate public scrutiny, commercial opportunities and logistical complexity while managing intimate partnerships. For teams and federations, the challenge is pragmatic: accommodate relationships without compromising fairness, maintain clear codes of conduct and support athlete well-being through medical and mental-health resources. For fans, these stories humanize elite performers and offer narrative continuity between Games cycles, but they also invite responsibility from media and federations to respect privacy and avoid sensationalism.

Looking ahead, federations, sponsors and media will likely formalize best practices that help partners compete effectively while protecting competitive integrity and personal privacy. As more athletes maintain long-term relationships within the elite sport ecosystem, governing bodies will face repeated decisions about accommodation, conflict resolution and communications — and the Milan–Cortina Games are a visible case study of how those choices play out on the world stage.

• NPR — feature report (news media)
• Team USA — official national Olympic/Paralympic committee site (official)
• International Paralympic Committee — athlete profiles and official results (official)