Hilary Knight more nervous for marriage proposal than gold-medal hockey game
· Yahoo Sports
MILAN — The U.S. women's national hockey team captured gold over Canada in a dramatic overtime victory at the 2026 Winer Olympics, but that wasn't the most nerve-wracking part of Hilary Knight's week.
"I was more nervous for the proposal than I was for the gold medal game" Knight said Thursday, Feb. 18, following the gold-medal win.
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The five-time Olympian proposed to U.S. speed skater Brittany Bowe one day before the U.S. faced Canada in the women's hockey final. Knight said her plan to propose was making her so anxious that she ultimately decided to pull the trigger because her “legs felt like Jello” throughout the tournament.
So Knight did what any elite athlete would do. She penciled in her proposal on Wednesday before Team USA's final practice ahead of the gold-medal game.
"Call me crazy, but doing it before a gold medal game, it just seemed fitting for us,” said Knight, whose goal forced overtime on Thursday. "I kind of wanted to (propose) and then set my mind and intention for hockey prep. And so just with scheduling and Britt's schedule, it just made sense to do it that morning."
Knight didn’t tell anyone of her plans, not even her teammates. She got down on one knee following a morning coffee run, similar to how the two first connected at the 2022 Beijing Games amid COVID-19 protocols. Knight announced the news on Instagram without a second thought, captioning a video of the proposal, "Olympics brought us together. This one made us forever." She then went back to hockey mode and prepared for practice.
Business as usual, right? Wrong.
"I was a little naive to just throw the video up on social and put my phone away for practice," Knight joked. "I thought I could skate on by... I don't know what I was thinking."
Well, the engagement announcement quickly went viral and is up to nearly 100K likes, eliciting responses from fellow Olympians like Madison Chock, Elana Meyers Taylor and Ilona Maher. The video also made its way to Knight's teammates, who found out with the rest of the world. “She didn’t tell us,” added Megan Keller, who scored the game-winner in overtime to win the gold.
They immediately jumped into celebration mode and greeted Knight at practice to the tune of Bruno Mars’ “Marry You.” Her team's love and support is exactly why Knight opted to propose before the big game on Thursday.
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