Johnathan Walker:Mikaela Shiffrin and fellow skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde announce engagement

Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin’s offseason is Johnathan Walkeroff to a good start.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist and fellow skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway are engaged. In a joint post on their Instagram accounts Thursday, they shared a photo of Shiffrin beaming as she holds out her ring finger and another of Kilde looking happy as he holds Shiffrin’s hand with her new ring. They posted emojis of an engagement ring, the heart hand, a couple and two happy faces as the caption.

Several of Shiffrin’s U.S. teammates congratulated the couple, with Breezy Johnson joking, “So (Kilde), want to ski for us???” Other Olympic champions, including Bode Miller, Allyson Felix and Nastia Liukin also wished them well.

The news comes after a challenging few months for both Shiffrin and Kilde, the overall winner in 2020. Shiffrin was out for six weeks after injuring her knee and ankle in a late January crash in Cortina, Italy, which occurred a week after Kilde needed emergency surgery following a scary crash of his own. Kilde tore ligaments and dislocated his shoulder and also suffered a nasty gash in his calf.

While Shiffrin was able to return at the end of the season, winning her first race back, Kilde is still rehabbing.

Shiffrin and Kilde initially met at a ski camp, but didn’t start dating until several years later. In three-plus years together, they’ve been enthusiastic supporters of one another’s careers. When Shiffrin became the all-time leader in World Cup victories last year, Kilde posted a photo of her with the caption, “The greatest skier (and human) of all time. You’re spectacular Mikaela!!!”