Great Britain wheelchair basketball Paralympian Robyn Love proposed to her girlfriend and teammate Laurie Williams in February 2020 in Paris, 18 months before taking the court together in Tokyo at the Summer Paralympics.
She said, “Yes!”
They announced their engagement with a photograph on Twitter and both a picture and video of Love popping the question on Instagram, telling followers, “I almost managed to get down on one knee!”
Fans and British Wheelchair Basketball cheered the lesbians’ engagement. Williams is coming off being named one of the top five players at the Osaka Cup earlier this month. She made her GB national team debut at age 17, and more than a decade later, Williams is considered one of the greats of British wheelchair basketball, according to Rollit Magazin.
Williams and Love recently celebrated five years together as girlfriends.
Four years ago, Love played in her first Paralympics in Rio, and told the BBC about her disability.
“I thought you had to be a wheelchair user to play wheelchair basketball but you don’t,” Love said. She has a condition which affects legs and joints called arthrogryposis. Her right leg is shorter than her left and she is missing muscles in both legs. However, Love never let that get in the way.
To tour Paris, Love posted on Instagram that she rented an electric scooter and Williams “held on” whenever they hit a hill.
“I’m not a daily wheelchair user,” Love said, “even though I was born with my disability, but this sport has now given me this amazing opportunity to be the person that I know I am.”
And her sport provided an opportunity for Love to fall in love.
Last year the British team took home silver from the European Championships in Rotterdam. Next, the two will compete at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics this summer as an engaged couple.
