A Real-Life ‘Heated Rivalry’ Is Headed To The Olympics
No secrets here, just two engaged, openly queer hockey players preparing to face each other at the Games.
Featured image by Troy Parla/Getty Images
If you finished Heated Rivalry and immediately felt a rivals-to-lovers-sized hole in your heart, you’re in luck. Because while the show delivers Olympic-level drama, nothing beats the real thing.
Meet Anna Kjellbin and Ronja Savolainen. They are engaged, very much in love, and professionally committed to hitting anyone who gets in their way, including each other. Both play in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) on opposing teams, with Kjellbin suiting up for the Toronto Sceptres and Savolainen holding the blue line for the Ottawa Charge. And soon they will take that rivalry international at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
Unlike the fictional world of Heated Rivalry (and the real world of men’s hockey), where queerness is hidden behind closed doors, the PWHL is out and proud. More than 30 LGBTQ+ players currently compete in the league, and Kjellbin and Savolainen are part of a generation for whom being out is no big deal. That openness has not made competition any softer.
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Savolainen, who will represent Finland, already has two Olympic bronze medals from 2018 and 2022. Kjellbin will make her Olympic debut for Sweden. Their teams will not meet in the preliminary round, which means any matchup would likely come during the medal round.
Savolainen has been very clear about how she approaches games against her fiancé. “I don’t care who’s in front of me … if it’s going to be her, I’m going to hit her,” she said in a 2024 interview with the Ottawa Citizen. “We can take it up after the game.”
She added, “When you play, you just play. You don’t really think about who’s there. You’re friends after. On the ice, she’s my enemy. That’s how it goes.”
Kjellbin feels much the same. When asked whether fans might see a full-on fight between the two in Milan, she replied, “No, I don’t think there will ever be that kind of fight. But I don’t care who I hit, I just hit.”
The couple first met while playing in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League and stayed together through drafts, team changes, and national borders. After five years of dating, they announced their engagement in 2024.
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They are far from the first women’s hockey couple to balance love and international rivalry. Julie Chu and Caroline Ouellette, Meghan Duggan and Gillian Apps, and Jayna Hefford and Kathleen Kauth all built relationships while representing different countries at the highest level. Kjellbin and Savolainen now join that iconic group.
Women’s hockey at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics will begin on Thursday, February 5, 2026, with preliminary round games scheduled a day before the opening ceremony. Early matchups include USA vs. Czechia and Canada vs. Finland. The tournament will run through February 19, concluding with the medal games. With hockey starting earlier than most Olympic events, the women’s tournament will unfold over nearly the full span of the Games, giving rivalries plenty of time to develop before the podiums are rolled out.
