This Adorable Out Olympic Couple Forms the Ultimate Team

Photo: Instagram (@katewalsh11gb)

English field hockey players Kate and Helen Richardson-Walsh have been teammates for nearly two decades, and have been a couple for the last eight years. With the support of the rest of their squad, who were all invited to Kate and Helen’s wedding in 2013, the pair is ready to take on Rio. They'll be the first married same-sex couple to compete together in the Olympic Games.

Their personal chemistry, according to Kate, gives the couple a competitive edge. "In training recently Helen scored an amazing goal and it was very much the two of us who made it and one of our coaches said we’d become telepathic."

This competitive couple’s relationship success is in part due to keeping their life on the pitch and their life at home separate. When the couple gets frustrated during games or practice, they admit they’re more direct with each other than they would be with other teammates. "But we deal with it in the moment," says Kate. "By the time we get home it's done."

This isn’t the couple’s first time at the Olympics. In 2012, the couple won the bronze medal together at the London Olympic Games. However, Helen’s career was threatened after she ruptured two discs in her back within a year, and worried she would never play again. Though Helen fought to recover in time for the 2014 World Cup, she didn’t make the cut.

Kate, the Great Britain team captain, described a feeling of helplessness without her wife playing by her side. "It was hard playing on the team without her. We played close together and would often link up. Even now, when she is playing a bit higher up the field, we still connect instinctively because I know where she is going to be."

Kate and Helen will be happily side by side again for the 2016 Olympics, where Great Britain’s field hockey team has a shot at the gold medal.