A little bling before they go for medals! Beloved BMX couple Alise Post, who competes for Team USA, and Sam Willoughby, who competes for Australia, are engaged after more than seven years together!
The 24-year-old Australian proposed to his love on Coronado Island on December 27.
“Being that he is from Australia and I’m from Minnesota, this is the ‘city in the middle’ where we have been living since the fall of 2009 and it made for a perfect backdrop,” Post tells Us Weekly exclusively. “Knowing that I’d love photos of this special moment and wanting to get me to this specific spot without looking suspicious, he called up a friend of ours in the area that shoots photos for the BMX magazine that goes out to all of the members of USA BMX, and set up a plan. We both received texts from the photographer to meet up Sunday morning for some ‘last minute casual style shots for an article due on Monday.”
Post — who said she was confused about the made-up article — kept asking what the story was about, with no luck.
“The photographer had us back to back with serious faces and all sorts in order to help Sam have time to get the ring out of his pocket and have the perfect backdrop. But once Sam got his ‘that’s the shot’ cue, he wasted no time in turning to face me, dropping down to one knee with a big smile on his face, ring in his hands, and asking me to marry him,” the 24-year-old gushes of her love, who she met as a junior elite racer at UCI BMX World Championships in China in 2008. “It really was perfect for us, and he made it so special by doing it while most of our family was in town for the holidays since we’re normally spread across the globe. It made for the perfect Sunday brunch celebrations!”
Funny enough, the night before the shoot, Post — who competed in 2012 at the London Olympics — was joking that the setting for the fake magazine spread was like that of an engagement shoot.
“I thought it was a complete joke when he dropped to one knee, and I basically laughed it off and told him to get up, until I really looked at his face and noticed the ring,” she says. “When I saw his smile and that ring in his hands, I couldn’t believe it!”
While the racer plans to save wedding planning for 2017 nuptials until after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, she is keeping a close eye on her bling!
“It’s so dang sparkly! It’s white gold with a round-cut center diamond. On either side of the center stone is then a baguette and a few small band diamonds that build nicely to the center. It also has a neat rose-gold two-tone feature on the underside of the center stone, which I think really adds character to it,” she explains. “It’s so beautiful I just can’t take my eyes off of it!”
To learn more about all the Olympic hopefuls, visit TeamUsa.org. The Olympics begin on August 5, 2016, on NBC’s networks.
