Heated Rivalry! 2026 Olympic Couples Who Are Competing Against Each Other
Love is in the air at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Over two dozen athletes arrived in Milan with partners that won’t be watching from the sidelines. Olympians, like hockey players Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey, are fighting for gold alongside each other. They have that in common with quite a few ice dancers, though that portion of the Games is over.
A few other couples, however, are representing different countries. There’s a married pair facing off against each other in the women’s skeleton event, each vying for that top spot on the podium. An engaged couple may go head-to-head in women’s hockey. (One of them declared that her fiancée is her “enemy” on the ice. It’s Heated Rivalry IRL.) Swooon has broken down all the rival couples to keep an eye on at the 2026 Olympics.
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Kim Meylemans & Nicole Silveira
Relationship Status: Married
Event: Skeleton
Team Brazil’s Nicole Silveira and Team Belgium’s Kim Meylemans have only been married for a few months, and they’re going to compete against each other in the women’s skeleton event. It begins on February 13, and the final takes place the next day — Silveira and Meylemans’ first Valentine’s Day since they married. It’s the second Olympics they’ve both competed in.
“It was difficult at the 2022 Games. We were already together, but still on different teams, so we didn’t know what was secret and you couldn’t tell your rival,” Silveira told the Brazilian Olympic Committee.
The athletes, who are now both based in Calgary, met in 2019, per OutSports. They fell in love during the COVID-19 pandemic when they stayed in the same hotel. “They are a female couple, and at the same time they compete against each other, which makes it all the more special,” their performance coach, Fernando Oliva, told AFP. “The main thing is that they show that, above all else, they are people, above being rivals in sport.”
He continued, “Neither is coming here to Italy to enjoy the experience. We’re coming to finish as high as possible, to win medals, no matter what. But in terms of mental preparation, we don’t talk about it much.”
Meylemans won the women’s skeleton World Cup this year, which she celebrated in a January 17 Instagram post. “This team right here is something truly special though and a big part of this success — I wouldn’t have achieved this goal without them, especially my wife,” she wrote. “Don’t think anyone truly understands how much I needed her with me (pushing & supporting me) to achieve this.”
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images, Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Anna Kjellbin & Ronja Savolainen
Relationship Status: Engaged
Event: Hockey
Team Sweden’s Anna Kjellbin and Team Finland’s Ronja Savolainen haven’t played each other yet, but they might. Both of their hockey teams have made it to the February 13 quarterfinals, and if they both win their respective matches, they could meet each other on the ice on February 16.
The couple first met playing together in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League, per Them. They’ve since joined different PWHL teams — Kjellbin plays for the Toronto Sceptres and Savolainen for the Ottawa Charge — so they’re no stranger to being rivals while they’re together. “It was the best thing that could happen, that she got drafted [in Toronto], and I got drafted [in Ottawa],” Savolainen added. “I was more nervous to see where she was ending up than where I ended up. We’re in the same country, at least, the same side of the world, so I’m super happy.”
They dated for five years and got engaged in 2024. “I’m usually the one who goes home as a winner,” Savolainen told Ottawa Citizen the same year. “I don’t care who’s in front of me… if it’s going to be her, I’m going to hit her… When you play, you just play. You don’t really think about who’s there. You’re friends after. On the ice, she’s my enemy. That’s how it goes.”
Al Bello/Getty Images, Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Emily & Dominik Fischnaller
Relationship Status: Married
Event: Luge
Technically, Emily Fischnaller (née Sweeney) and Dominik Fischnaller didn’t directly face off, but they are competing in the same sport for different genders. Emily wound up in 12th place for women’s single luge for Team USA, while Dominik already took home a bronze medal — which he also earned in 2022 — for Italy. It was their third and fourth Olympics, respectively.
Emily and Dominik married in May 2025 after dating for about 15 years. They met as teenagers, when they would see each other throughout the season and connect during summers. Since they’ve married, they’ve rebuilt Dominik’s childhood home in Italy. In their interview with The AP earlier this year, Emily said, “It just feels like we’re setting up a future instead of just living in the present. It’s exciting.”
At the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018, Emily fractured her neck and back in a crash. Ahead of this year’s Olympics, Dominik told The AP, “I tell her she can’t get hurt because I feel the pain even 10,000 times more than she feels her own pain. I’m extremely nervous when she’s sliding. I almost can’t watch the race.”
“I want to enjoy this more than I did in other Olympics,” Dominik added. “Then, I was just focused on sliding, sliding, sliding. I didn’t really experience the atmosphere or anything. I hope this will be different for me this time and Emily is for sure a big part of that.”
2026 Winter Olympics, Check Local Listings, NBC and Peacock
