PARIS: 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.
Yaqiong and her mixed doubles partner Zheng Siwei demolished South Korea's Kim Won Ho-Jeong Na Eun 21-8 21-11 to win the badminton mixed doubles final at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.
Yaqiong, who also won a mixed doubles silver in Tokyo with Siwei, looked shocked as spectators went wild, before smiling shyly and accepting Yuchen'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 Yaqiong.
"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.
Yuchen's and Yaqiong'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-metre springboard when her boyfriend and fellow medalled diver Qin Kai asked her to marry him. - Reuters