IT’S THE BIG 14/2, you crazy kids. Time to cut out some heart shapes, paint everything red and look deep into the eyes of your significant other, hoping to Jaysus you’ve done enough to placate them until the next special occasion comes a knockin’.
And so as TheScore.ie’s significant other, readers, we may have forgotten to pick up that Milk Tray you wanted from the garage, but we have tied a big old bow around these 14 cutesy couples from the world of sport.
On three… aaawwww.
Tiger Woods + Lindsey Vonn
It’s not just a sponsor they share, the man who was aiming to be the world’s greatest ever golfer landed on his feet after the 2011 sex scandal that rocked everybody’s world.
Their Power Couple rating would probably be higher if Vonn had been allowed an injury-free run into the Winter Olympics, but alas, the downhill skiing champion could not emulate Tiger’s 2008 US Open feat of winning big with the use of only one leg.
Sanya Richards-Ross + Aaron Ross
Say hi (and then, quickly, bye) to the fastest couple on our list.
Sanya Richards-Ross has four Olympic 400 metre golds to her name, including one from the individual event in London 2012. Her husband, twice a Super Bowl champion with the Giants, can run really fast too… just not over as long a distance.
David J. Phillip/AP/Press Association Images
40 yards is more Aaron Ross’ thing. Running that distance he’s been clocked as low as 4.35 seconds.
POWER couple.
Wozzilroy
Arguably the most naturally gifted golfer on tour, Rory McIlroy recently got down on one knee, assessed the undulations of the situation lined up a beautiful pu… er, diamond ring right onto Carol Wozniacki’s finger.
Solid as a rock this pair, who could ever doubt them?
Derval O’Rourke + Peter O’Leary
If it’s an athletic couple you want, you can’t ask for more more than a double Olympian household.
Corkman Peter O’Leary competed at the London Olympics in the Star class sailing and you all know Derval O’Rourke by now, the queen of Irish athletics.
©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
Bode Miller + Morgan Beck
No, Bode isn’t just the name of the bank robber Keanu Reeves is chasing in Point Break. This Miller has also been known make his personal safety seem like it takes secondary importance, a major part of Alpine skiing for over a decade now, his crowning moment came with a Super Combined gold medal at the 2010 Olympics.
Frankly, if it wasn’t for watching Ski Sunday we’d never have heard of Miller’s wife, Morgan Beck, but apparently she’s kind of a big deal on the US pro volleyball circuit.
Damian Hayes + Claire Grogan
This pair would rival Wozzilroy for their hand-eye coordination. Hayes, an inter-county hurling star with Galway; and Grogan, an inter-county camogie star with Tipperary.
Nice to see she shelved the blue and gold for maroon when taking Hayes to the All-Star awards.
Grigor Dimitrov + Maria Sharapova
Maria (in the picture below you can just about see her) watching her fellow Tennis pro and beau; Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
Sharapova [SCANDAL] is four years older than Dimitrov, 22, who is rapidly rising up the ATP ranks. Currently at number 19, Dimitrov exited the Australian Open in the quarter-finals at the hands of Rafa Nadal.
Jessica Harrison + Carole Peon
Harrison (pictured on the left below) is an English-born Triathlete who competed for France up until last year’s ITU final in London.
It’s an individual sport, of course, but if ever there was to be teamwork in this seriously tough race then Harrison will have found it from her partner, Carole Peon.
Harrison, a co-owner of a wetsuit brand for use in triathlons, finished ninth in the 2012 Olympics – Peon came in 29th.
Ailis McSweeney + Bryan Cullen
Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like an inter-county footballer and a dominant sprinter in Irish athletics.
Want some proof of their athleticism credentials? Check out that 10km time behind Cullen in this pic – and this was after he had played in Croke Park that same day. McSweeney, well, does an 11.4 second Irish record time over 100m do anything for you?
George North + Becky James
Wales’ young Jonah Lomu impersonator has quickly become star of world rugby after his Folau lifting exploits for the Lions.
Sure, he went home with empty handed from Dublin last weekend, but waiting on him at home is 22-year-old Becky James. Not only is James also Welsh, she is also a speed demon and is a dead cert to beat North in a one-on-one sprint [in their respective chosen discipline].
James is a track cyclist and is the current world champion in the sprint and Keirin disciplines, titles she will have to defend when the world champs come around again at the end of this month.
Fiona Steed + ‘The Bull’
Steffi Graf + Andre Agassi
Sorry, Dimitrov/Sharapova, but here are the greatest power couple ever to string up a pair of his and hers rackets.
Graf won 22 Grand Slam events and Agassi won eight on the men’s circuit before writing a book about how much he had always hated the sport and loved a bit of crystal meth… and they all lived happily ever after.
Press Association Images
Zara Phillips + Mike Tindall
Unlike the Wozzilroys, all round royal horsey type Zara Phillips and champion dwarf-thrower Mike Tindall have already been through the whole royal/sporty wedding thing.
Their life now is [presumably] now married bliss. She, with her Olympic silver medal in eventing. Himself with a Six Nations trophy and everlasting memories from a lads-on-tour trip of a life time to New Zealand during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Andrew Milligan/Press Association Images
The Heffernans
More Olympians, more deadly serious athletes helping each other through that unforgiving world of elite performance.
Marian is a 400 metre sprinter who competed with Ireland’s relay team in London, but it is Rob who has the shiniest trinket on the mantelpiece after he made himself champion of the world in the 50km walk last summer.
