Bill Demong has more than a gold medal to celebrate after winning the Nordic combined at the Vancouver Olympics. The skier is engaged to his girlfriend Katie Koczynski.

“I had a ring that I’d been saving for two months, and I think that my girlfriend was a little onto me,” Demong tells the NY Times. “I decided to wait for that special moment, and I had it in my race bag. I took it to the start line and I kind of kept, like, my eyes out for that moment.”

After taking home gold, Demong gathered with friends at a house rented by the U.S. ski team and proposed to his girlfriend of a few years.

“I didn’t really hear her answer, but she put it on willingly enough,” Demong said of his great aunt’s engagement ring which he presented to Kocyznski.

“I was just in total shock. I felt kind of ridiculous,” Koczynski said.

Categories Engagement News
Tags Bill Demong, Katie Kocynzski, Proposal