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Olympian Justin Best: ‘I Got the Gold and the Girl, and She Got the Diamond’

The City of Love is certainly living up to its name as the marriage proposals just keep coming at the 2024 Summer Olympics. On Monday, American rower and gold medal winner Justin Best surprised his girlfriend of nine years, Lainey Duncan, with a diamond engagement ring during a live broadcast of the Today show.

Against the backdrop of their family members holding bouquets overflowing with 2,738 yellow roses — each one representing a day the couple has been together — Best went down on one knee and professed his love.

“Lainey Olivia Duncan, you are the love of my life. You have been with me since day one,” he said. “I knew you were special since our first date when I said to you, ‘I want to go to the Olympics’ and you, without question, said, ‘Absolutely go for it.’ You are stunningly beautiful, ferociously intelligent. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t love you.”

Then the 26-year-old from Kennett Square, PA, held out a ring box and asked the “easiest question” of his life.

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you and raise a family together,” he said. “Lainey, will you marry me?”

Without hesitation, she exclaimed, “Yes.” He placed the ring on her finger and the couple embraced.

She told the Today show audience, “I am so, so happy. This is the best day of my life.”

People.com reported that Duncan’s platinum ring is set with a 2.01-carat, G-color, emerald-cut natural diamond.

“She always had an extraordinary stack of rings on her hands so I wanted to get her one that could support any variation of rings she has on that day,” Best told people.com, adding that he purchased the keepsake in December. His dad had been secretly carrying the ring in Paris in the lead-up to the proposal.

Best admitted that he got jittery as he prepared for his on-air proposal.

“I was just as nervous as I was lining up for the start line,” he said, referring to Team USA’s gold medal performance on August 1 in the four-man rowing event. It was the team’s first victory in this discipline since 1960.

In summarizing his Olympics experience, Best joked, “I got the gold and the girl, and she got the diamond.”

You can check out the Today show segment at this link…

Credits: Screen captures via today.com.

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