Australian Olympic swimmer Bronte Campbell, 30, has announced her engagement to longtime boyfriend Benfield Lainchbury, 35, a Sydney-based musician. The two were childhood friends and have been together for eight years.
Campbell subtly leaked the news in a video taken from Venice, Italy where the proposal took place featuring a unique east-west set emerald cut diamond ring on her finger. The moment happened on a canal ride.
In a second post, Campbell called it the “easiest yes of my life.”
The engagement came shortly after Campbell swam at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which were her 4th Olympic appearance for Australia. There she swam a prelims leg of the winning Australian 400 free relay to earn her third career Olympic gold medal and fourth overall Olympic medal.
Campbell is also a five-time World Champion and 11-time World Championship medalist in long course, highlighted by a sweep of the 50 and 100 free sprint events at the 2015 World Championships.
In 2012, she and her older sister Cate Campbell became the first Australian siblings on the same Olympic swimming team in 40 years. Cate retired from swimming earlier this year after missing a bid to join her sister on another Olympic Team.
Cate joked after the proposal that ‘the pressure is off’ her partner Adam Kerr.
Bronte hasn’t yet ruled out a run at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, though it took a big decision and a lot of rehab to make her healthy enough to race at the Paris Games.
“Will I still want to do it by the time LA comes around – that’s the question,” she said in an interview with News Corp. “That’s what I asked myself after Tokyo, do I still really want to do this? The answer being yes meant that I came back to it.
“I might be at a slightly different phase of my life by then, [with marriage and children] so we will see.”
Her fiancé Lainchbury pursued music as a younger man, releasing an EP in 2020
Was he sober when he asked?
https://www.abc.net.au/triplejunearthed/artist/benfield/