Love is in the air among this year’s 2026 Milan winter Olympians, and with Valentine’s Day and the epic sporting event both around the corner, it’s only right to acknowledge some of these happy couples. Especially because this year, there are four thriving, openly out, women-loving-women couples heading to the Olympics.
Hockey, one of the leading sports in the Winter Olympics, is notorious for its gender norms and lack of representation of queer people. For reference, there are currently zero openly gay National Hockey League players, with only 16 gay players in its history. The Professional Women’s Hockey League wasn’t even funded until three years ago. But the cultural phenomenon that is Heated Rivalry — centered around two male hockey rivals who become lovers — has brought queer athletes to the forefront of the conversation, and amplified the visibility around LGBTQ+ couples in sports.
These WLW Olympian pairs include Kim Meylemans and Nicole Silveira, Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen, Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey, and Brittany Bowe and Hilary Knight. From teammates to rivals and speed skiing to hockey, these couples each have their own unique love story worth celebrating. Allow me to introduce you to the four WLW couples heading to the 2026 Winter Olympics.
- Kim Meylemans & Nicole Silveira
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Representing Belgium and Brazil, respectively, Meylemans and Silveira are married rivals in the sport of Skeleton. Celebrating a little over one year of marriage, the couple will face off as they solo-sled down winding paths of ice at over 100 kilometers per hour. There is no work-life balance — this pair does everything together: train, encourage, and even compete. These newlyweds are not letting their love for each other get in the way of their love for their sport, or the other way around.
- Anna Kjellbin & Ronja Savolainen
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If you’re like me and are on your third rewatch of Heated Rivalry, it’s time we take a break and watch the Winter Olympics to witness a real-life Heated Rivalry unfold between the engaged lesbian couple Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen. They even play for Canadian teams — Kjellbin for the Toronto Sceptres and Savolainen for the Ottawa Charge. They first met playing together in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League, and after five years of dating, they announced their engagement in 2024. The couple currently is not slated to compete against each other in the preliminary rounds, but they could face off in the medal round.
“I don’t care who’s in front of me,” Savolainen said in a 2024 interview with Ottawa Citizen. “If it’s going to be her, I’m going to hit her… When you play, you just play. You don’t really think about who’s there. You’re friends after. On the ice, she’s my enemy. That’s how it goes.”
- Marie-Philip Poulin & Laura Stacey
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Switching things up, Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey are actually teammates rather than rivals. Both women play for the Montreal Victoire, and Poulin is team captain. They started dating in 2017, and tied the knot in September of 2024. “I’ve always been the hockey player. But I have a wife and I can be myself,” Poulin said in an interview with CBC Sports. “People are coming to the rink and saying thank you for allowing me to be myself.”
- Brittany Bowe & Hilary Knight
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Team USA has its own love story between speed skating champion Brittany Bowe and hockey icon Hilary Knight. Bowe wouldn’t have previously described herself as a hockey fan, but Knight changed that.
“I had always seen her as strong and competitive — the face of women’s hockey,” Bowe said to Team USA. “But when I was getting to know her, the first thing that caught my eye was how soft spoken she was, and the calming presence she had.”
Bowe and Knight’s relationship unfolded publicly, and Bowe said she’s “been met with nothing but acceptance, love and grace.” She said, “I am blessed, because that is not always the case.”
These eight women serve as role models not just for their hard work and dedication to their sports, but also for their representation of the queer community. At the end of the day, love is love — even if your lover is also your rival.