Yarden Gerbi, the Israeli retired judoka world champion and Olympic medalist, shared a picture on Facebook of her and her girlfriend on Tuesday morning.
This came as a surprise to many of her fans, and is the first public announcement of the athlete's sexuality.
"Sometimes we don't know why things happen, maybe these thoughts are from someone who sent us a blessing, or maybe its just fate?" Gerbi wrote.
In her heartfelt post, she introduced her romantic partner - Dana. "I fell in love with her the moment our eyes met, and every since our love is only growing stronger. The feeling of happiness that fills me throughout the last period, the butterflies, content, the smile from ear to ear with no particular reason, its all because of her."
Aside from winning a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Games Olympic Games, she was also crowned judo world champion in her weight class in 2013, was a runner-up in 2014 and achieved three medals—one silver and two bronze—in three different European championships.
A little over a year following her win at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the beloved Israeli athlete announced her retirement from judo.
Since then, Gerbi has channeled her talent to coaching and other unrelated fields, such as competing in the Israeli TV show Survivor, and delivering a lecture called "Uncompromising" to audiences in person and various and online platforms.