It is clear that tens of thousands of athletes will flood Northern France in the coming weeks. However, many people are unaware that among this massive expedition, there are various couples of athletes who will undoubtedly seek out romantic hideaways between competitions. Or perhaps, add a padlock or some 'Olympic' ring to their relationship.

Not all of them are paired in the same discipline, far from it. Some are in different sports and nations, others compete in the same sport on different days, and some are even rivals. However, love and high-performance sport are separate; in the arenas, tracks, circuits, or rivers, there are no friends, only rivals with the same desire to win a medal.

Luck has smiled upon the couple of judokas, Neapolitan Christian Parlati and his girlfriend, Gabriella Willems. Both are scheduled to compete on mats right next to each other at exactly the same time. "With luck, July 31st will be a happy day filled with tears of joy for both of us," confesses Willems before the Olympic event.

There are other stories that are not so idyllic within the framework of the Olympics. This is the case of Spanish-Australian tennis player Álex de Miñaur, who is in the world top-7. The young player couldn't be part of the Australian team in Tokyo 2020, a disappointment due to contracting COVID-19. Now, at the peak of his career, he faces this challenge, the "dream of participating in the Games" alongside his partner, the promising Katie Boulter of Team Great Britain.

The talented English player, currently in a bit of a slump on the WTA tour, is looking to bounce back after some irregular recent tournaments. She was eliminated in the second round of Wimbledon a few weeks ago but is very motivated for what's coming in Paris. “The Olympic Games are something I have wanted to celebrate since I was a child,” she said in a recent interview.

Switching gears, there is a duo of American fencers: Lee Kiefer and Gerek Meinhardt, competing in their third Olympics as a couple. More precisely, it’s the fourth for Kiefer overall and the fifth for Meinhardt.

Both pose a formidable challenge for the other participants. Meinhardt won two bronze medals between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Kiefer, on the other hand, made Olympic history in Japan by winning the first individual gold in foil. A joy that overwhelmed the couple: "Words cannot describe how much I wanted this," Meinhardt said after his wife's achievement.

Dates can happen anywhere. A restaurant, a bar, along the banks of the Seine, or even on the beach in Marseille. This is where Austrian sailor Lara Vadlau and her girlfriend, German footballer Lea Schüller, hope to meet. The coincidence is that the southern French city hosts the sailing competition, and also, on 25-28 July, Germany will play its first two group stage matches.

"I find it really helpful (being elite athletes) because we both understand what you have to do for your sport, that you're away a lot and we don't see each other often," Vadlau confessed recently. But surely, a date in the picturesque streets of Marseille can happen, right?

Many couples will travel together or meet in the perfect setting to indulge in romance and love. A love like that shared by famous tennis players Elina Svitolina and local idol, Gael Monfils, who will have a new fan in the stands: their almost two-year-old daughter, Skai.

Another story that brings a tear of joy is that of Slovak racewalkers Dominik Cerny and Hana Burzalova, a couple on and off the track, who will compete together in the mixed relay before saying 'I do' at the altar after the Olympic event.

As Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, once said, "The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." In both sports and love, it is the journey and the shared moments that truly matter.