Welcome to your go-to guide to the 2026 Winter Olympics. We’re tracking everything—from real-life heated rivalries (yes, they exist) to under-the-radar sports and surprise standouts—so you can catch up on all of our coverage in one place.
If you binge-watched Heated Rivalry, you’re familiar with the grab-the-popcorn heady romance between Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, both rising stars in Major League Hockey—but on opposing teams. They’re pretty hot and fiercely competitive. It’s all incredibly steamy, and it’s on ice.
The story seems like it could only be fodder for novels and a scripted TV show, but fans of the series may be delighted to learn that the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics has a real heated rivalry of its own.
Meet Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen, a couple competing on opposing hockey teams in Italy this month. Kjellbin is representing team Sweden, while Savolainen plays for team Finland. Their love story started while both were part of the Swedish Women’s Hockey League, and after five years of dating, they’ve been engaged since 2024.
But don’t let their love story fool you. They remain fierce competitors on the rink.
“I don’t care who’s in front of me…if it’s going to be her, I’m going to hit her,” Savolainen told the Ottawa Citizen in 2024. “When you play, you just play. You don’t really think about who’s there. You’re friends after. On the ice, she’s my enemy. That’s how it goes.”
Savolainen is a veteran Olympian, who won two bronze medals with Team Finland in 2018 and 2022. This year’s Games will be her third, while her fiancé Kjellbin returns for her second Olympic games. Finland and Sweden are not scheduled to play each other in the Olympic preliminary rounds, but the couple will most likely face off in a medal round.
Julie Mennano, LMFT, a couples therapist and author of Secure Love: Create a Relationship That Lasts a Lifetime tells SELF it is possible to put aside your love and care for a partner, yet still maintain a healthy relationship, as you both fight for the same dream.
“Partners competing against each other will undoubtedly bring up complex feelings that can all co-exist, like jealousy, pride, disappointment, and admiration,” says Mennano. “The relationship gold medal goes to couples who can manage these feelings with health instead of letting them contaminate the relationship.”
Read the full article here
