USA winter Olympian Sophia Kirkby isn’t just in Italy for medals, with the luger dating a lucky fan who slid into her DMs while she is over in Europe.
The 24-year-old Kirkby had made no secret of the fact she was looking to date in the time around her competition, where she made history by competing in the first women’s doubles luge at the Games on Wednesday.
Kirkby even went as far as to call herself ‘athlete’s village most eligible bachlorette (sic)’. And with her competition now over after a fifth-place finish she is remaining in the Olympic Village until the end of the Games, giving her plenty of time to mingle.
And it seems she is not prepared to let time go to waste, even giving an interview while she was on a date.
‘He is a fan that jumped into my DMs two weeks ago,’ Kirkby told the New York Post about the man she was spending time with.
‘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?”
USA winter Olympian Sophia Kirkby was filling her spare time with dates in the athlete’s village
She had been keeping her followers up to date with her love life around competing in Italy
‘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.’
According to the Post, she first met up with him on Friday and had made plans to see him again on Valentine’s Day.
If that wasn’t enough of a sign that things were going well, she shared a picture of herself on Saturday by a pool, relaxing next to a man in shorts whose face was out of the shot.
She added to the Post: ‘I’m fortunate that I’m one of the countries that gets to stay in the Olympic Village.
‘The majority of my competitors I saw leave today, but fortunately for me, Team USA is one of the few countries that pays a premium for us to be here the entire time. So I am just going to have fun. It’s my vacation time.’
On her Instagram on Valentine’s Day, Kirkby said she had two dates lined up for that day alone.
She had also told KTSM that she would be using the apps to see who she could meet up with.
‘There’s going to be lots of tourists,’ Kirkby said. ‘I’m hoping to go on lots of dates and I’ll be opening up my dating platforms like Hinge and Tinder.’
The luge star has shared various Instagram reels about her love life to her 23,000 followers
Kirkby (left) had said she is the ‘most-eligible bachelorette’ at this year’s Winter Olympics
She had also told women’s health that she had an open mind in terms of what she was looking for in a partner.
‘My mindset is just to take chances, meet people, and see what’s out there,’ she said.
‘Everyone’s schedule is intense, and people are really locked in on their events. But it’s also super social – there’s a lot of friendly energy, and people are excited to meet each other.
‘I think athletes are down to have fun, especially once they’re done competing, but it really depends on where they are in their competition schedule.’
