Olympics & Paralympics

China’s Huang Leaves Paris with a Gold Medal and a Diamond Ring

AP
China’s Liu Yuchen proposes to teammate Huang Ya Qiong after she won her mixed doubles badminton final at the Paris Olympics on Friday.

Reuters

10:59 JST, August 3, 2024

PARIS (Reuters) – Chinese mixed doubles gold medallist Huang Yaqiong had just stepped off the podium when her teammate, men’s doubles Tokyo silver medallist Liu Yuchen, got down on one knee and proposed at the Paris Olympics on Friday.

Huang and her mixed doubles partner Zheng Siwei demolished South Korea’s Kim Won-ho and Jeong Na-eun 21-8 21-11 to win the badminton mixed doubles final at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.

Huang, who also won a mixed doubles silver in Tokyo with Zheng, looked shocked as spectators went wild, before smiling shyly and accepting Liu’s ring, containing a sizeable diamond which sparkled up close later during a press conference.

The proposal was very surprising because I’d been preparing for the game, said a glowing Huang.

The ring fits my finger really well, she added, with a laugh.

Fans took to social media to gush about the proposal, with one writing on Weibo: “This year’s medal count can now include a diamond ring.”

Liu Yuchen didn’t win the Olympic gold medal but he did win over an Olympic gold medallist, another wrote.

Liu’s and Huang’s engagement is not the first time a Chinese Olympian has been proposed to, still fresh from the fight.

In Rio, diver He Zi had just received a silver medal for the women’s three-meter springboard when her boyfriend and fellow medalled diver Qin Kai asked her to marry him.

In the Olympic sailing competition in Marseille earlier on Friday, French women’s skiff sailors Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon returned ashore from winning a bronze medal to find their respective partners waiting to go down on one knee and propose.