FIRST, USA NATIONAL swimmer Matt Grevers won a gold medal in the Missouri Grand Prix. Then, he proposed to his girlfriend and swim teammate from the medal podium.

Grevers dropped to his knee in front of TV cameras and cheering fans to ask Annie Chandler – who had just congratulated him on his win – to marry him.

He was helped along the way by his elder brother, who sneaked him the diamond ring while he stood on the stand.

“I took it out a little fast because my heart was racing the whole time,” said Matt Grevers, who won two gold medals in the 2008 Olympics as a preliminary relay swimmer and a silver in the 100 backstroke. “If I didn’t get first it wouldn’t have worked out so well.”

Chandler, 24, said she had little inkling that 26-year-old Grevers would propose, even when meet organisers asked her to help present the medals during her boyfriend’s event.

“The only part that felt unnatural was when Matt asked me to get on the top podium with him,” she said. “When he fell to his knee and I saw the shiny black box, I knew. That’s when I went weak in the knees and kind of fell down myself.”

Watch the dramatic proposal unfold here:

(Video: USASwimmingOrg)

- Additional reporting from AP