© AP
DEP-OLI BEIJING-PROMISED-RIVALS
Three years following Adrián Diaz asked Madison Hubbell to marry him on a cliff with a romantic view of the port of Barcelona The two Olympic figure skaters are looking forward to planning their dream wedding.
Although first they must spend Valentine’s Day in the strangest way possible: competing once morest each other.
Hubbell and his longtime partner, Zachary Donohue, are in third place and aiming for a medal when the American duo conclude their ice free dance competition on Monday. Diaz and her partner, Olivia Smart, are further down the leaderboard who will try to improve their rhythmic dance with a memorable performance for Spain
“It has never been a close fight,” Diaz acknowledged sheepishly.
In fact, Hubbell and Donohue are among the elite figure skaters in the world, a pair who were once involved off the ice but were so good at competition that they preferred to remain teamed up — and best friends — even though their romantic relationship ended. Along the way, they won a pair of silver medals at the world championships and placed fourth at the Pyeongchang Games.
Diaz and Smart have never finished inside the top 10 at world championships.
So yes, the two couples are literally competing once morest each other. But in a practical sense, there is not much competition. And it takes all the stress out of what might be a tricky and tricky situation, allowing Hubbell and Diaz to be their best supporters and fans when they get a slim chance to sit in the stands.
As happened in the team event last week, when Hubbell helped the United States win a silver medal — which might become gold when the Russian doping scandal is over. Spain had no team in the competition.
“It was very special for me to have my fiancé in the stands,” said Hubbell, “because we are usually so focused on our events that we don’t get a chance to see each other compete in person. So I’m very happy to have him there.”
There are some real-life couples at the Winter Olympics, and they call themselves lucky: the closed-loop system to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks includes a ban on foreign visitors, so those who came to Beijing with your partner as a coach, teammate or even rival you can spend Valentine’s Day together.