China's Huang Yaqiong gets Olympic gold medal and marriage proposal

What's better than winning an Olympic gold medal? How about winning a gold medal and receiving a marriage proposal right afterward?

That's exactly what happened to Huang Yaqiong, a women's badminton player from China, on Friday. Yaqiong teamed up with Zheng Siwei to clinch the gold medal in the badminton mixed doubles competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics, defeating South Korea's Kim Wonho and Jeong Naeun with scores of 21-8 and 21-11. After the medal ceremony, fellow Chinese badminton player Liu Yuchen had a surprise in store for her.

Yuchen ‒ a silver medalist in the men's doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics who also competed in men's doubles during the Paris Games ‒ pulled out a ring, knelt down, and proposed. Holding flowers from the medal ceremony, Yaqiong quickly accepted. The proposal was broadcast on the videoboard at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris, and the crowd erupted in celebration for the couple.

This isn't the first engagement linked to these Olympics. The official website of the Paris Olympics noted that Argentina men's handball player Pablo Simonet proposed to Argentina women's field hockey player Maria Campoy in the Olympic Village just before competition commenced. Additionally, American swimmer Lilly King got engaged to her fiancé James Wells on the pool deck in Indianapolis during the United States Olympic swimming trials in June.