Olympic athletes Ryan Gregson and Genevieve LaCaze live, train and travel the world together.
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Therefore, LaCaze is pleasantly surprised her partner of several years managed to keep his plans to propose on Christmas Day a secret.
Bulli product, 1500m runner Gregson, 27, and fellow athlete, Queenslander LaCaze, 28, were staying with Gregson’s relatives in Alexandria when he popped the question at 7am on Christmas Day.
“He caught me completely off-guard, which makes it that much more special,” the 3000m steeplechase competitor said the day after accepting Gregson’s proposal.
“As athletes you get used to structure and planning everything before things happen.
“And Ryan and I live in each other’s pocket with the same sort of routine.
“I don’t know how he pulled it off without me being the snoopy person I am and noticing.
“I’m just high on life right now… I do everything by heart rate and my heart rate monitor is definitely saying my heart rate is much higher than normal.”
Gregson said the newly engaged couple had known each other since 2007 but had, “always lived in different states, and Genevieve went to college in Florida for four years, so we only saw each other like once a year”.
“Then we spent a fair bit of time together at the 2012 Olympics (in London) and it kind of all started from there,” he said.
The pair, who bought a house in Melbourne this year, are both part of the Melbourne Track Club, which is run by renowned coach Nic Bideau.
“We live a great life,” Gregson said. “We travel around the world together and we have a lot of fun doing it.”
Having been nicknamed ‘Mr and Mrs Athletics’ on social media, Gregson said they “haven’t really planned anything yet (in terms of the wedding), but I’m sure it’ll be a pretty big occasion in the athletics world”.
LaCaze said after she experienced an injury-riddled 2017, the couple were focusing on the Commonwealth Games in April.
“With the Comm Games being so huge in the immediate future we’ll put all our focus into that, and then as soon as the Games are over I’ll allow my focus to shift to wedding dresses, venues, lists and planning,” she said.
“Towards the end of 2018 is probably what we’re looking at doing when it comes to actually tying the knot.”