Dutch sailors get engaged before Paris Games

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Bart Lambriex could not wait until the Olympics were over to propose to fellow Dutch skiff sailor Odile van Aanholt, asking his long-term girlfriend to marry him less than a month ago.

Lambriex, 25, got down on one knee and had a ring served in the dessert at the end of a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant outside Amsterdam, Van Aanholt told Reuters after training in her 49erFX on Friday.

"It was super romantic," the 26-year-old said, the diamond sparkling on her finger after she had finished washing down her boat with crew Annette Duetz and had changed out of her sailing gear following an intense practice drill.

"I'm really happy he did it because a sort of ease came over me and also a little bit of a thought like 'I know the Olympics are important but it's not that important any more, I've already won this year'," Van Aanholt added.

The pair first met when they were around eight or nine when they were both racing Optimist dinghies and had been friends for a long time before getting together when they were 18 or 19.

"We were both in the talent pool of the sailing academy at that time, so you spend a lot of time abroad and it was a really fun period getting to know each other," said Van Aanholt.

Initially the sailors, who have both won world championships in their respective classes and will be competing in the forthcoming Women's and Youth America's Cups, only saw each other when sailing because Van Aanholt would go home to Curacao.

Van Aanholt admits the pair do talk sailing at home.

"Bart is very into every type of sailing. When he is not really sailing, he is video game sailing at home. So for me it could sometimes be a bit less, but it's very valuable because if sometimes you are a bit lost or you need to rehash what happened you completely understand each other," she said, smiling.

"Most of the time it really helps that you can just share and feel this recognition," she said of her fiance, who was also out practicing in his two-man 49er skiff.

Lambriex and Van Aanholt are both from sailing dynasties and her brother Just is representing Aruba in the ILCA 7.

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