Of the over 150 queer women and non-binary people competing in the Paris Olympic games this year, a whopping 48 of them are in confirmed relationships with other athletes — often current or former teammates, sometimes people doing entirely different sports. Amongst those 48, there are five couples who are going to the Olympics together, and another seven athletes who are currently dating or married to former Olympians.
There were almost more! Beloved couple Meg Jones and Celia Quansah, two of Britain’s brightest rugby stars, competed together in Tokyo and hoped to return to Paris for a medal — but after a major knee injury last year, Celia didn’t make the team, but she’ll be there to cheer Meg on. Anne Veenendaal is competing on the Dutch Field Hockey team, but her girlfriend of five years, Ayeisha McFerran, was on the Irish Field Hockey team that didn’t make the Olympics. A similar fate befell both Ellie Carpenter and her fiancee Danielle Van De Donk — Ellie is going to the Olympics for Australia, but Danielle’s Dutch team didn’t make it.
Anneli Maley and Marena Whittle (3×3 Basketball, Australia)
(Photo by Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images)
Anneli Maley and Marena Whittle have been partners for five years and together, they comprise half of Australia’s first 3×3 basketball Olympic team. “It’s obviously about basketball,” Maley told the Courier and Mail, “but how cool is it that we get to be that example for the younger girls and boys who get to see that representation on an Olympic stage. Some young ones may be afraid to stay something so hopefully seeing us at the Olympics can put them at ease and help in some way.”
Anne Buijs (Volleyball, Netherlands) and Ana Carolina Da Silva (Volleyball, Brazil)
Photo by Rene Nijhuis/Orange Pictures/BSR Agency/Getty Images
Prior to Paris 2024, the Dutch women’s volleyball team had only played in three Olympic games (1992, 1996 and 2016). They’re going into the 2024 games ranking eighth overall globally, and Anne Buijs, who has played with the National team since 2008, is on the roster. She’s married to Ana Carolina da Silva, who made her Olympic debut with Brazil’s volleyball team in 2020. They are a very cute couple!
Charlotte Englebert and Emma Puvrez (Field Hockey, Belgium)
26-year-old Emma Puvrez and 23-year old Charlotte Englebert, whose relationship goes back to at least 2019 on instagram, are both first-time Olympians competing in Paris for the Belgian national Field Hockey team. It’s actually only the second year that Belgium qualified for the women’s hockey tournament at an Olympic Games (the first was at London in 2012).
Ana Carolina Azevedo (Boxing, Brazil) and Beatriz Ferreira (Track, Brazil)
Brazillian boxer Beatriz Ferreira, the eldest of three daughters of champion boxer Raimundo Ferreira, won silver in the Women’s Lightweight event at the 2020 Tokoyo Olympics. Sprinter Ana Carolina Azevedo, named Best Female Athlete by the Brazilian Athletics Confederation in 2020, competed in Tokyo Olympics as well. Now they’re both heading to Paris.
Lea Schuller (Football, Germany) and Lara Vadlau (Sailing, Austria)
26-year-old Lea Schuller will be playing forward for Germany’s women’s football team, her first trip to the Olympics. Her girlfriend, 30-year-old Austrian sport sailor and doctor Lara Vadlau, competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, but didn’t medal. She posted on instagram last week that returning to the games would be “the biggest challenge in the last 8 years.” She added: “I am one hell of a lucky girl to even get the chance to be part of this challenge and to live life to the fullest!” As elite athletes, the pair is only able to snatch a few days together here and there despite living together in Munich, so both are stoked for the opportunity not only to compete, but also to be in the same place at the same time.
Surprised there are no couples both in soccer
i know! it’s wild because literally *half* of the soccer players going to the olympics are dating other soccer players but none of them are dating soccer players who are also going to the olympics.
Looks like there was some kind of editing glitch in the first example. It’s promoting fomo because I can’t figure out what it was supposed to say…
i’m not sure what was going to happen there but it has been fixed!
The Olympics reporting I truly wanted! Thank you!
you’re welcome!
i’m not sure what was going to happen there but it has been fixed!