Olympic gold medalist and Drexel alumnus Justin Best proposed to his girlfriend on the ‘Today’ show
The Kennett Square native has been making the most of his time in Paris.
Who’s had a better week than Drexel alumnus Justin Best?
He helped US Rowing’s men’s four to its first gold medal since 1960 — after calling on Jason Kelce to deliver the pre-race motivational speech. And on Monday, live on the Today show, he proposed to his girlfriend, Lainey Duncan.
“I knew you were special — it was the first date. I said to you, ‘I wanted to go to the Olympics,’ and you, without question, said ‘Yeah, absolutely. Go for it,’” Best told her on the show. “You are stunningly beautiful, ferociously intelligent. Your kindness is bent leaps and bounds — I don’t know anyone that doesn’t love you.”
With the Eiffel Tower in the background, surrounded by thousands of yellow roses, the Kennett Square native got down on one knee and proposed.
“Each yellow rose represents a day that you and I have been together,” Best said. “Obviously we communicated through Snapchat. Our streak is 2,738 right now. So there are 2,738 yellow roses from Snapchat. Our love is truly now immortalized.”
Best and the Americans won the gold-medal race on Thursday when they beat out New Zealand by less than nine-tenths of a second. But he said he was just as anxious proposing.
“I was just as nervous as I was lining up for the start line,” Best said. “If I had a heart monitor on, it might be going 130 bpm.”
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Of course, she said yes.
“I got the gold and the girl,” Best joked.
His proposal is the latest at these Olympics in the City of Love. Chinese badminton player Huang Ya Qiong was proposed to just after winning gold at the arena, and American shot putter Payton Otterdahl proposed to his girlfriend in front of the Eiffel Tower. Swimmer Lilly King’s boyfriend proposed to her at Olympic trials in June.