Search icon

Celebrity

12th May 2020

Two of Ireland’s Olympic athletes just got engaged and the announcement is the sweetest thing EVER

Leslie Ann Horgan

“I can’t think what to say because I haven’t stopped smiling”

A golden moment. A victory for the heart. The greatest prize of all. Some other pun that combines sports terminology with romantic love…

The 2020 Olympics may have been cancelled but there was still reason for Team Ireland to celebrate with the news that two of our most talented athletes have gotten engaged. Natalya Coyle and Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe announced their happy news on Instagram today, in what might just be the sweetest love story we’ve ever heard.

“She said YES!” Arthur wrote under a photo of the smiling couple, an engagement ring visible on her Natalya’s left hand. “Don’t know what was more nerve racking… proposing or the olympics but this time I took home the gold.”

Meanwhile, Natalya wrote “I can’t think what to say because I haven’t stopped smiling,” on her own Instagram. “16 year old Tal would be shocked if she knew she’d get engaged to the Junior tetrathlon champion. I fell for him then and things haven’t changed. Looking forward to celebrating with everyone when we can x”

The cuteness of that! We’re not crying, it’s just hay fever…

Both Natalya and Arthur have previously represented Ireland at the London and Rio Olympics.

They both compete in the modern pentathlon, an endurance event that tests both the physical and mental abilities of competitors. It’s made up of five sports: swimming, horse riding, cross country running, shooting and fencing.

The pair had hoped to represent Ireland at the Tokyo Games this summer. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 the Games were postponed until next year. Now they can add wedding plans to their training schedule for 2021. Congratulations guys!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Silver at World Cup Final with @natalyacoyle ??? . . . Extremely happy with how I performed at the Olympic Test Event in Tokyo. Unfortunately during the individual event a very unfortunate horse draw meant that both riders who rode it (myself included) were eliminated because it refused point blank to jump any fences ?‍♂️. This was particularly frustrating as I was lying in 4th place and in contention for the medals. Although there are soo many positives to take from this trip including a new long course swim PB of 2:00:50 and a brilliant day competing with the best partner @natalyacoyle and finishing 2nd in the World ? . . . Now it’s time to head home and regroup for the main event The European Championships in 5 weeks time. Top 8 places qualify directly to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics ???? . . . #Tokyo2020 #OlympicTestEvent #Uipm #NoLimits

A post shared by Arthur Lanigan O’Keeffe (@arthur_lok1) on