Team USA Olympians Hilary Knight, Brittany Bowe engaged at Milan Cortina Games

Speedskater Brittany Bowe could not have medaled however she is leaving the Winter Olympics with not less than one piece of {hardware} after longtime girlfriend Hilary Knight proposed on the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Knight, who’s about to play within the ladies’s hockey gold medal recreation, bought down on one knee to pop the query to Bowe, in line with an Instagram video they posted on Wednesday. They have been each decked out of their Team USA gear in addition.

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“Olympics brought us together,” Knight wrote. “This one made us forever.”

Bowe is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, although neither of these got here from the Milan Cortina Games. Knight is a four-time medalist herself and is assured a fifth in tomorrow’s grudge match towards Canada.

If Team USA wins, Knight can have her second gold medal. If they lose, she’ll go house together with her fourth silver medal.

The couple has been collectively since they fell in love on the 2022 Beijing Games, the place there have been nonetheless protocols that restricted audiences and household from attending the Olympics. But Knight mentioned it was an ideal approach to get to know Bowe as they spent many days strolling round and speaking.

“To have that human connection, even walking outside at a distance, it was really cool,” Knight told Olympics.com.

Bowe added that she knew in a short time that the hockey ahead could be in her life for a very long time.

“Knowing her as a hockey player, it’s like this big, strong, powerful female,” Bowe said. “But then, when we got to know each other, she was soft, genuine, kind, almost shy. That really sparked my interest.”

Their engagement sparked joy for other Olympians, who were all over the comment section of the social media post. Bronze medal-winning rugby player Ilona Maher exclaimed “joyful days” in a comment as Knight’s teammate Aerin Frankel wrote “SCREAMING.”

Fellow 2026 Olympians and married ice dancers, Evan Bates and Madison Chock, expressed their congratulations. Retired figure skater Adam Rippon left two comments, one of which was laughing at how they were engaged in sweatpants.

“OMGGGG I WANT TO FLIP TABLES I WANT TO SCREAM I WANT TO CRY,” Rippon wrote.

They are not the only Olympians walking away with rings, as skier Breezy Johnson’s boyfriend popped the question to her at the bottom of her super-G run in Cortina D’Ampezzo last week.

The ring box included an inscription with lyrics from Taylor Swift’s song “The Alchemy,” which talks about a man ignoring a trophy and running towards his love instead.

Swift supplied her congratulations within the remark part of the couple’s Instagram publish.