MILAN — Sixteen thousand fans packed into the Milano Santa Giulia Ice Hockey Arena Thursday, Feb. 19 to witness the women's hockey gold-medal game between longtime rivals USA and Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The crowd included U.S. hockey star Hilary Knight's new fiancée — U.S. speed-skater Brittany Bowe.
Bowe was spotted in a Team USA jersey on the TV broadcast Thursday, one day after Knight got down on one knee and proposed to her following a morning coffee run. Bowe is set to compete in the women's speed skating 1500-meter race Friday, Feb. 20, but wouldn't miss the final Olympic game of Knight's prolific career.
The couple announced their engagement on Instagram on Feb. 18. It marked a full circle moment for Knight and Bowe, who first met at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
"Olympics brought us together. This one made us forever," Knight captioned an Instagram video of the proposal.
Following their proposal, Knight attended Team USA's final practice before Thursday's gold-medal game. Of course, Bowe understood, one of the many "awesome" perks of dating a fellow elite athlete, Knight said.
Knight and Bowe first connected at the Beijing Games amid strict COVID-19 protocols. The duo often went on fully masked strolls that were cute but not necessarily romantic, Knight recalled. Bowe walked away with bronze in the 1000 meters in Beijing, but she told People that her time with Knight "was the biggest win coming out of Beijing."
“(It was) a very unique way to meet someone, but it was also kind of cool because we felt like we were in this bubble," Bowe said. "No outside distractions. And we really had a lot of time just to get to know each other.”
Knight and Bowe started dating in December 2022. Their relationship helped Knight find the strength to publicly come out a year later in 2023. Knight said they understand each other on a different level as two elite athletes with prolonged careers. Milano Cortina marks Knight's fifth Games and Bowe's fourth.
"We have normal human conversations and then we have Olympic athlete conversations about tactical and technical parts of our training," Knight said at the USOPC media summit in October. "(Bowe's) so intentional and thoughtful with preparation, and it's something that I hope that's rubbed off on me in the right way. But it's really incredible when you put two different sports side by side and see how they're similar and how they're different as well."
The 2026 Winter Olympics marks the last Games for both Knight and Bowe. Bowe fell short of the podium with fourth-place finishes in both the women's 1,000 meters and the women's team pursuit, but she will have another chance to medal on Friday in the women's 1500m, a distance she previously held the world record in.
Reach USA TODAY National Women’s Sports Reporter Cydney Henderson at [email protected] and follow her on X at @CydHenderson.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hilary Knight's fiancee Brittany Bowe attends Olympic hockey final