With each passing Olympics, stories of the athletes’ love lives dominate social media as rivals form unexpected relationships. For one Team USA star, the mountains of Cortina d’Ampezzo were turned into her very own ‘Love Island.’
Luge star Sophia Kirkby has gone viral in recent weeks by putting out the call to the men of Milan and Cortina to take her out on dates in various fun and flirty ways.
The native of Lake Placid, New York has been routinely posting to her Instagram account these past few weeks, keeping her growing legion of fans updated on her love life.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Kirkby dished the details on her dates, and revealed what life is really like in the Olympic Village.
Kirkby comes from a less-populated area of New York State, tucked away in the Adirondacks. So after qualifying for the games, she took this opportunity to put herself out there.
‘I’m a pretty open book. I tell a lot of people things, just if I think it’s funny and harmless, so I thought I would incorporate that into my world of social media because I’m not afraid to share these details. I want all the married women, girlfriends, and fellow single ladies to live vicariously through me,’ Kirkby told the Daily Mail.
Team USA Olympian Sophia Kirkby is at the end of her dating journey in Cortina d’Ampezzo
Kirkby arrived to the Olympic Village declaring herself the Games’ ‘most-eligible bachelorette’
When Kirkby (R) wasn’t competing in luge, she was being bombarded by DMs from suitors
‘I just wanted to take this opportunity to also try and find dates, because where I live, the dating pool is kind of slim pickings. It’s a small, a low-populated tourist town. And with the Olympics and being an Olympian, I thought that I would have a great opportunity to meet new people and go on some fun dates here in Cortina.’
So she ventured off to the Italian Alps with her sled and a box filled with ceramic pins that she made herself. Among the first posts she made to open her dating pool was a promise to trade pins for a date.
The response was staggering: ‘I probably have at least 3,000 requests that I have yet to look at,’ Kirkby said.
‘I’m just getting so many men messaging me and trying to shoot their shot, and I really appreciate it. But it’s just a lot to skim through, so only a select few men have been able to get it past the accepted message stage.’
Kirkby says she’s gone on five dates in her time at the Olympic Games. Among the many suitors who have managed to take her out include a ‘real gentleman’ Italian police officer who treated her to sushi.
She also went out with an unnamed fellow Olympian, leading to plenty of buzz about the identity of the mystery man.
Her first rendezvous came with a man who took her out for pizza in the local mountain town, but love does not appear to be on the cards with Kirkby dismissing that, quite simply, as a ‘friendship kind of date.’
But the best date came on Valentine’s Day itself: ‘I had two dates, and it was both by the same gentleman. He actually is an American, he is currently living in the UK, and he flew to Cortina just to visit me,’ she revealed.
‘He reserved some spa time for us at one of the hotels here. He booked four hours of spa access to the sauna, the pool, to do some ice bathing. It was a great reset after I had just competed in the Olympics.’
After the spa came dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant where Kirkby had ‘the best pasta I had ever had.’
‘I’m going to be thinking about that pasta for so long, I don’t think I would ever be able to re-create it,’ she revealed.
Kirkby says she went on five dates throughout her time in the Olympic Village in Cortina
Among those who courted her included a fellow Olympian and an Italian police officer
But an American man who flew from London to Cortina to treat her to a very special pair of dates on Valentine’s Day appears to have set himself apart above the rest
But with the Games coming to a close, Kirkby says she’s now winding down her search for love.
‘I’m done going on dates because I want to go hang out with girlfriends, I want to focus on some of the events, and my whole focus after my event was not to go on dates with the boys, that was just a bonus.
‘I wanted to take this opportunity to go meet people, to go take risks, to put myself out there, because I hadn’t really gone on dates in quite some time.
‘But I’m done now, I’m tired. I have one boy that I’m interested in potentially seeing again, we’ll see how that goes.’
While her time dating is done for now, she still is living in the makeshift Olympic Village set up in Cortina.
Kirkby describes it as a ‘brand new trailer park’ of duplex motorhomes set up on an airstrip.
She does have privacy, but only some: ‘I’m sharing a wall with the athletes next to us… and the walls aren’t that thick.
‘I can hear the conversations that they’re having. Luckily, no one’s saying anything rude.’
After her fun journey, Kirkby says she’s now done with dating at these Olympic Games
Commenters suggested Kirkby may start posting ‘spicy’ content, which she denies
Those thin walls could lead to problems when it comes to late-night activities in the notoriously promiscuous Olympic Village – a place long been viewed as sport’s version of Burning Man where intimacy is common and condoms are distributed by the thousands.
At least, that’s what the public has been told. The reality, Kirkby says, is much different.
‘I have not seen a single Olympic condom. I have not used an Olympic condom, and I don’t plan to use any condoms. My intimacy life here in the Olympic Village has been non-existent.
‘I know that’s really hard to believe, because I put myself out there… but just because I go on a date with someone, it doesn’t mean that I brought them back, or it doesn’t mean that we even had a kiss.
She added: ‘It’s just like regular life. You can just go on a date and never see this person again.’
Kirkby has faced some backlash from people who are assuming that she’s being promiscuous in her dates and on social media. It’s seemed louder considering her Instagram account has grown from ‘maybe three or four thousand followers three weeks ago’ to nearly 50,000 followers now.
‘With great growth comes both lovers and haters,’ Kirkby says. ‘And I have some people, I think they’re just bored and they’re hiding behind a screen. No one has ever said anything [rude] to my face.’
Some comments under her posts have suggested that this is just a launching point for Kirkby to pivot to adult ‘spicy’ content. She rejects this premise entirely, and insists an OnlyFans subscription page is not on the horizon.
‘I think few people have realized that even though I’ve put myself out there, I’ve shared that I’m interested to go on dates with people, I was doing all this without showing any skin and without implying anything sexual,’ she noted.
Kirkby (left) poses with Team USA teammate Chevonne Forgan ahead of the Games in Italy
Kirkby’s popularity has brought some pains: ‘With great growth comes both lovers and haters’
Kirkby also had someone from her past re-appear. After she posted about an old flame who ghosted her before the Olympics, a different man she briefly dated sent her a text message ‘that was really not happy.’
‘I’ve just got some boys, and I hit some nerves, and I feel bad,’ she shared. ‘I didn’t want anyone to be upset, but I just wanted to share with the girlies that skeletons come up sometimes.’
With her Olympic journey done, Kirkby plans to return home after a long World Cup season and an eventful time in Italy.
‘I have no regrets. I’m really glad that I was able to multitask, just doing the social media and doing my luge at the same time.’
But while this saga may have come to an end, Kirkby isn’t ruling out the possibility of a part-two for the Winter Olympics in the French Alps in 2030.
‘For France, I will be 28 if I do compete. We’ll see, maybe I will or won’t have a boyfriend by then, but if I don’t have a boyfriend, there very well could be a sequel to this dating world.’