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Figure skaters who ice skate or ice dance in pairs have long been fooling the world with their undeniable chemistry. Each time these athletic couples take the ice, just about everyone finds themselves wondering if they are dating or in love. In many cases, you’d be surprised to learn that there are several pairs (such as former Olympians Meryl Davis and her partner Charlie White), who aren’t romantically linked off the ice.
That said, some of these figure skaters simply couldn’t help falling in love and are dating, living their lives together both on and off the ice.
Here are the figure skating pairs competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics who are in romantic relationships:
1. Madison Chock & Evan Bates
Chock and Bates have been ice skating partners for years, but they only started dating about a year ago.
“I’ve always had great chemistry with [Bates]. We’ve always gotten along so well. Skating together is something that we love doing, and we love doing it together. Now, we’re together on and off the ice and it makes it even more powerful. It feels completely genuine and real. It makes training so much more fun and it brings us closer together every day. We’re working together, working towards the same things. When you’re doing that with someone that you love, it really is so much more meaningful,” Chock said in a media teleconference.
Chock, 25, and Bates, 28, competed in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games Sochi, Russia, but did not medal. When the two aren’t ice skating, they enjoy spending time with their toy poodles, Stella and Henry.
Chock previously dated fellow figure skater, Deividas Stagniunas.
2. Alexa Scimeca Knierim & Chris Knierim
Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim aren’t exactly dating — they are married. According to NBC, they are the first married couple to compete for Team USA in the Olympic Games since 1998. They tied the knot in 2016 in a wedding ceremony officiated by their coach, Dalilah Sappenfield.
“During the months of 2016 I married the love of my life, but I also felt what it could be like to lose her. It was scary. I was brave outside, but terrified within. I stood by her side helping her get to the second half of the competition season in 2017,” Chris said, in part, on Instagram.
One of the things that makes this pair unique is their height difference — Chris is 6’2″, and Alexa is 5’2″.
According to Team USA, the Knierim’s will be attempting a quad twist lift during their routine.
3. Penny Coomes & Nick Buckland
Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland are an ice dancing couple on Team Great Britain. They have been dating since 2005 and the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, will be their third trip to the Winter Games. They have never medaled (in 2010 they finished 20th and 2014, they finished tenth).
Over the years, the two have been sidelined with injuries, but are ready to go for gold.
“We’re a much stronger team since Sochi, both mentally and physically. We’ve developed much more of our own style. It’s been a tough couple of months as Penny’s knee is still recovering, and we’ve been redesigning the free dance, but when you come to the Games so much can happen. It just depends how everyone else skates, and if we go out there and put in two good performances, we can get high up there. It’s always been the goal to get an Olympic medal, it’s just that we’re coming at it from a very different place than we imagined,” Buckland recently told Eurosport.
4. Evgenia Tarasova & Vladimir Morozov
This Russian duo started working together professionally in 2012, after their coaches suggested that they team up. Little did they know that they’d end up falling in love. Tarasova, 23, and Morozov, 25, finished in first place in the pairs short program on February 8.
They have wonderful on-ice chemistry and both speak very highly of each other.
“Morozov describes his partner as ‘the best girl, easygoing, good natured, sweet, and amicable,’ while she said about him: ‘He is very nice, sometimes too nice, and sometimes on the contrary he is strict and he always gets what he wants. When he wants something, he achieves it,'” according to Golden Skate.
5. Miriam Ziegler & Severin Kiefer
Miriam Ziegler and her boyfriend, Severin Kiefer, have been skating together since 2013. Ziegler started her figure skating career solo, but later realized that she preferred to be on the ice with a partner. Little did she know that she’d end up falling in love with that partner (and the feeling is mutual, of course).
“Miriam and I spend close to twenty four hours a day together and quite honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Kiefer told SkateGuard1.
The couple will be competing in South Korea, hoping to earn a gold medal for Team Austria. Ziegler, 23, and Kiefer, 27, have never medaled in the Olympic Games.
When they aren’t ice skating, the duo enjoys exploring new places and spending time with their beagle puppy.
6. Marie-Jade Lauriault & Romain Le Gac
Skating for Team France, ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac teamed up in 2014. Although neither wanted to enter a romantic relationship with an on-ice partner, they fell in love.
“I said I never will go out with my partner and she thought the same way,” Le Gac told Golden Skate in 2016.
“Truly, in the beginning I had a barrier to overcome, but love was stronger,” Lauriault added.
Lauriault, 21, and Le Gac, 22, ended up getting married in 2015. At the time, Lauriault was a Canadian citizen. She obtained her French citizenship this past December 2017.
