{"id":285835,"date":"2026-02-15T22:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/285835\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T22:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:18:14","slug":"winter-olympics-star-enjoys-valentines-date-with-fan-who-flew-600-miles-to-meet-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/285835\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Olympics star enjoys Valentine’s date with fan who flew 600 miles to meet her"},"content":{"rendered":"

American luge star Sophia Kirkby has found romance at the Winter Olympics with an admirer who journeyed 600 miles from the UK just to meet her.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old athlete, who’s been calling herself the “most eligible bachelorette” at the Games, made it clear she was hunting for love as well as medals in Milan-Cortina.<\/p>\n

It turns out her search has paid off rather nicely.<\/p>\n

The keen suitor, who’s originally American but currently based in Britain, reached out to Kirkby through social media and made quite the impression.<\/p>\n

He’s now flown out to Italy specifically to spend time with the Olympian during the Games.<\/p>\n

Kirkby is a three-time world championship medallist in women’s doubles luge, though Milan-Cortina marked her debut on the Olympic stage.<\/p>\n

She and her partner Chevonne Forgan gave it their all but narrowly missed out on a podium finish, coming in fifth place.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/p>\n

American luge star Sophia Kirkby has found romance at the Winter Olympics with an admirer who journeyed 600 miles from the UK just to meet her<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

INSTAGRAM<\/p>\n

The gold went to Italian duo Andrea Voetter and Marion Oberhofer, with Germany’s Dajana Eitberger and Magdalena Matschina claiming silver.<\/p>\n

Austrian pair Selina Egle and Lara Michaele Kipp took home the bronze.<\/p>\n

But the result hasn’t put a dampener on Kirkby’s Olympic experience one bit.<\/p>\n

\"Sophia<\/p>\n

Sophia Kirkby has been updating fans on social media<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

INSTAGRAM<\/p>\n

Since arriving at the athletes’ village, she’s been absolutely flooded with messages from admirers keen to get her attention.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the New York Post, Kirkby revealed exactly how the connection came about.<\/p>\n

“He is a fan that jumped into my DMs two weeks ago,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“He said, ‘Hey, I just found out I have the 13th to 16th off. Would it be weird if I came and booked an Airbnb five minutes from you?'”<\/p>\n

Her response? She told him to go for it.<\/p>\n

“And I was like, ‘Go ahead.’ He’s actually from the United States. He’s just currently living in the UK. And he flew here just to see me,” Kirkby added.<\/p>\n

\"Sophia<\/p>\n

Sophia Kirkby represents Team USA<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

INSTAGRAM<\/p>\n

The journey from London to Milan covers roughly 600 miles and takes about two hours by plane.<\/p>\n

Valentine’s Day proved to be quite the whirlwind for the American athlete.<\/p>\n

She shared an update on her Instagram stories with a selfie and the caption: “Busy day today: two interviews, two dates.”<\/p>\n

Later that day, she posted a photo showing a mystery man relaxing in what appeared to be a spa with an indoor pool \u2013 though only his green shorts and leg tattoos were visible.<\/p>\n

Kirkby is making the most of her extended stay, noting that Team USA pays for athletes to remain in the Olympic Village for the entire duration of the Games.<\/p>\n

“So I’m just gonna have fun. It’s my vacation time,” she said. The luge star also mentioned she’d be using dating apps like Hinge and Tinder during her time in Italy, hoping to meet tourists and go on plenty more dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American luge star Sophia Kirkby has found romance at the Winter Olympics with an admirer who journeyed 600…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,43,139,69,51066,2022,28267],"class_list":{"0":"post-285835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-sgg","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-winter-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}