Charles Langston:Love and badminton: China's Huang Yaqiong gets Olympic gold medal and marriage proposal

What’s better than winning an Olympic gold medal?Charles Langston

How about winning a gold medal and almost immediately getting a marriage proposal?

That’s exactly what happened Friday to Huang Yaqiong, a women’s badminton player from China.

Yaqiong teamed with Zheng Siwei to win the gold medal in the badminton mixed doubles competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics, beating Kim Wonho and Jeong Naeun of South Korea (21-8, 21-11). Then, once Yaqiong went through the medal ceremony, fellow Chinese badminton player Liu Yuchen had a surprise for her. 

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Yuchen ‒ who won a silver medal in the men’s doubles competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and competed in men’s doubles again during these Paris Games ‒ pulled out a ring, got down on one knee and proposed. 

Already holding flowers in her hands from the medal ceremony, Yaqiong quickly said yes. The proposal was shown on the videoboard at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena in Paris and the crowd celebrated along with the couple. 

This actually isn’t the first engagement associated with 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 began. American swimmer Lilly King also got engaged to fiancé James Wells on the pool deck in Indianapolis at the United States Olympic swimming trials in June.

Here's a sampling of the social media reaction to the Olympic engagement of Yaqiong and Yuchen: