They kept their relationship secret for years
Olympians announce surprise engagement
December 16, 2025 – 6:45 a.mReading time: 1 min.
Michelle Jenneke is one of Australia’s best-known track and field athletes. Now she has amazed her fans.
The popular hurdler Michelle Jenneke has so far kept her love life out of the public eye – now the Australian surprised her fans with her engagement. And her partner’s name made things even more surprising. Because he is also an Australian athlete. The 400 meter runner Alex Beck is the man at her side.
In the post, the 32-year-old appeared radiant with an engagement ring, tightly wrapped around her partner. She simply wrote: “8.5 years in the making.” Until now, their fans knew nothing about the relationship between the two Olympians – Jenneke was there in 2016 and 2024, Beck in 2020.
There were no previous pictures of each other on either the hurdler’s or Beck’s profile. However, both followed each other and regularly liked each other’s posts. Several athletes congratulated the two fiancés, including Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Alysha Newman and high jump world champion Nicola Olyslagers.
Jenneke is one of Australia’s most popular athletes and is known for her signature warm-up dance, which she performs before competitions.
This was also the case at the 2024 Olympic Games, which ended dramatically for them. The hurdler fell in the heat and dragged herself to the finish, so she still had a chance in the repechage run.
But even there she couldn’t qualify for anything bigger. Eventually it was revealed that she had suffered a torn thigh muscle. This forced her to take a month-long break. Jenneke is now back.