Local Olympian Tom Bosworth joined the romantic trend at Rio 2016 by proposing to his boyfriend on the beach at Copacabana.
His partner, Harry Dineley, accepted. It is the third time that this Games have featured a marriage proposal – all of them successful – although this time the race walker was the athlete to pop the question, while the other two were on the receiving end.
The 26 year old, who was born in Sevenoaks and belongs to Tonbridge Athletic Club, came sixth in his 20km event in Rio.
He Tweeted a photo of himself getting down on one knee on the iconic beachfront, with the comment: “He said YES!!!”
Mr Dineley later shared a photo of the ring, saying: “Ok then.”
The first proposal of the Olympics came when a Brazilian women’s rugby sevens player was approached on the field by her girlfriend last week.
Marjorie Enya, a manager at Deodoro Stadium, asked Isadora Cerullo to marry her after the competition had been completed.
Then Chinese diver Qin Kai made a lengthy speech to ask his team mate He Zi to marry him immediately after she had been awarded her silver medal in the 3m springboard event on Sunday.
Kai’s antics prompted criticism that he had not given his paramour time to enjoy her moment in the spotlight. Meanwhile, the British equestrian legend Charlotte Dujardin was greeted with a kind of proposal after she defended her dressage title in Rio.
Her fiancé, Dean Golding, had pinned a sign to his shirt saying: “Can we get married now?”
Tom Bosworth broke his own British record, completing the 20km race walk in a time of one hour, 20 minutes and 13 seconds, and led the field for a long period.
He Tweeted: “No medal, but will never forget leading the Olympic Games for over 10k & finishing 6th, especially when ranked 37th!”
Next day he added: “Just realised that I actually finished 6th at the Olympics. I wasn’t dreaming. Got goosebumps this morning!”
