Two Team USA Stars Got Engaged at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics — Here’s Their Story
Speed skater Brittany Bowe and U.S. women’s hockey captain Hilary Knight announced their engagement on Tuesday, Feb. 17, through a joint Instagram post from Milan Cortina. Knight’s caption: “Olympics brought us together. This one made us forever.”
The couple first met at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and got engaged four years later at the next Games — while both are still actively competing.
A Second Team USA Engagement in Milan Cortina
The Bowe-Knight engagement is the second for Team USA athletes at these Games. Downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson was proposed to last week after the women’s super-G by boyfriend Connor Watkins, three days after winning gold.
But Bowe and Knight’s story has a dimension the other doesn’t. These are two elite athletes at the peak and twilight of their respective careers, with a relationship that started inside the Olympic bubble itself.
“We really got to know each other in Beijing and have really been inseparable ever since,” Bowe told Olympics.com earlier this month. She added that she knew “very quickly” that this woman would be in her life for a long time.
The Person Behind ‘Captain America’
Knight carries one of the best nicknames in American sports. For Bowe, the turning point came in discovering the person behind the legendary moniker.
“Knowing her as a hockey player, it’s like this big, strong, powerful female,” Bowe explained. “But then, when we got to know each other, she was soft, genuine, kind, almost shy. That really sparked my interest.”
Knight is the captain of the U.S. women’s hockey team, competing in her fifth Winter Olympics. Her career stretches from Vancouver 2010 to Italy in 2026. She’s 36 years old. She tied the U.S. Olympic record for most goals and points in women’s hockey earlier in Milan Cortina and is now poised to become the first U.S. ice hockey player to win five Olympic medals.
She has a chance to add to that record with Team USA in Thursday’s gold medal game against rival Canada.
Bowe’s No Stranger to the Olympics, Either
Bowe, 37, is making her fourth Olympic appearance. She’s a two-time bronze medalist, having won a bronze medal at each of the last two Olympics, and she nearly added another in the women’s 1000m at these Games.
Her last ever Olympic event will be the 1500m on Friday.
What to Watch This Week In Milan Cortina
The next few days carry real stakes for both athletes. Knight and the U.S. women’s hockey team face Canada in Thursday’s gold medal game, where Knight has a shot at her second gold medal and a record-tying fifth Olympic hockey medal. Bowe takes to the ice for her final race, the 1500m, on Friday.
Two athletes, two sports, one shared Olympic journey from Beijing to Milan Cortina. Whether the week ends with gold or not, their engagement is the storyline threading through the rest of these Games.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
