40°
The 26-year-old American rower from Pennsylvania dropped down to one knee after winning the gold at Paris 2024, and proposed to his girlfriend of nine years, Lainey Duncan.
Best was joined by his teammates, who helped score the team's first gold medal in 60 years, along with family members holding thousands of yellow roses, to pop the question Monday, Aug. 5.
Click here for footage of the proposal from TODAY.
According to PEOPLE, each of the 2,738 roses represented a day that the couple used Snapchat to communicate over the course of their nine-year relationship.
The USA men's four team took home the gold medal last Thursday, winning clocking 5:49.03 in the 2000-meter race.
According to Delaware Online, Best's parents decided to introduce him to rowing after he'd suffered a concussion playing football. They had been inspired by the movie "The Social Network" — particularly the scenes involving Harvard rowers.
Best, who is 6'4", rowed with the Newport Rowing Club and continued rowing while attending Unionville High School. He went on to study business and engineering at Drexel University and worked as an investment analyst after graduation.
Click here to follow Daily Voice New Hope-Solebury and receive free news updates.
