Love on the Field: Sport's greatest ever power couples

It can be hard for professional athletes to find love, considering that they spend so much time devoted to their sport. It can be even more challenging when a love interest is also a professional athlete, with their own schedule and commitments. We’ll take a look at couples throughout sports history who found a way to overcome that.

They’re the premier power couple in all of tennis, as both Agassi and Graf are considered amongst the best to ever play. Agassi won eight major tournaments throughout his illustrious career, while Graf was victorious in 22 Grand Slam events. The couple has two kids, who seem to be forging their own path away from the tennis court.

There’s no exaggerating Hamm’s role in catapulting soccer (women’s or men’s) into the United States sports landscape. Her popularity peaked in the late 1990’s as she led the country to a Women’s World Cup title in 1999. Meanwhile, Garciaparra was one of the best shortstops in Major League Baseball around that same time.

Dating back to her days at the University of Connecticut, Bird has had one of the most decorated careers in women’s basketball history. The consummate point guard has won four WNBA championships, and made 13 All Star teams. Rapinoe’s soccer resume is also nothing to sneeze at; she’s won two World Cups and is looking for the hat trick this summer.

Speaking of U.S. soccer, Morgan continues to be one of the brightest stars in the sport. Her production will be critical to the American’s fortunes in the 2023 World Cup. She’s married to Carrasco, who will be rooting her on as much as his MLS schedule will allow. He’s currently a midfielder for Inter Miami CF.

Woods has had some much-publicized personal struggles throughout the course of the last decade, but he was still able to find companionship during that period. He met Vonn, an Olympic champion skier at a charity event, and the two hit it off. Their relationship would last about three years before they went their separate ways.

This pairing certainly hits hard, as Ali cut her teeth in competitive fighting, while Conway spent 12 seasons in the NFL. Ali is the daughter of all-time great boxer Muhammad Ali, so Conway probably had to prove that he could “fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee” before the interaction began.

Parker has been a constant presence on basketball telecasts in the last few seasons as an NBA analyst for Turner Sports and an active WNBA player. She was involved in a relationship with Williams, who spent six seasons playing in the NBA. The couple had one daughter. Parker is now married to Anna Petrakova.

Both May and Treanor were used to strikes in their respective sports. Treanor was an MLB catcher for nine seasons, spending most of his career with the Florida Marlins. May formed an unstoppable partnership in beach volleyball with Kerri Walsh, winning three Olympic gold medals in her career.

Johnston and Ertz might set the bar for active athletic couples. After a successful run with the Philadelphia Eagles, Ertz is now a member of the Arizona Cardinals. Johnston is still enjoying a fruitful career as a soccer player, and will appear for the United States women’s club this summer. They are both supremely committed to showing up at each other’s events as time allows.

It was an ace for Wozniacki and an eagle for McIlroy…at least for a short time. Respectively, the tennis and golf stars were very much into one another, and reportedly got engaged in 2013. However, things were not meant to go any further, as the couple broke things off the very next year.

The lamp lights up every time for these two. Both Granato and Ferraro had excellent hockey careers, and their relationship would be anything but icy. Granato scored over 180 goals in 205 games for the United States women’s national team. Ferraro would play 18 seasons in the NHL, with most of that service coming with the Hartford Whalers.

Drysdale is a Dodgers legend, having pitched for the team when they were in Brooklyn and when they relocated west to Los Angeles. He won one Cy Young award, and won the World Series with the Dodgers three times. Myers was an instrumental figure in women’s basketball history, having played on the 1976 United States Olympic team.

Cheney and Holiday have been a slam dunk duo since their days at UCLA. The two Bruins connected in college and have been together ever since. Cheney had surgery to remove a tumor in 2016, which forced Holiday to miss the beginning of that NBA season while he was still with the New Orleans Pelicans.

Durant doesn’t share a great deal about his personal life, but he once found himself in a basketball romance with Monica Wright. Wright won two WNBA titles in her seven year career, spending the majority of her time in the league with the Minnesota Lynx. Durant has won two championships in the NBA, and is a 13-time All Star.

Since retiring from the NFL unexpectedly in August 2019, Luck has remained out of the public eye. Not much is known about his whereabouts or life since leaving the game, but we do know that he’s found happiness on a personal level. Pechanec was a student-athlete while Luck went to Stanford, and competed as a gymnast.