When Nicola White and Chris Smith travelled to Melbourne with Sport Lived in 2015, they were both looking forward to nurturing their passion for sport and ready for new adventures in sunny Australia. But there was one surprising result that they weren’t expecting: finding a partner for life!
Nicola was already part way through her Sport Lived netball coaching programme when Chris arrived in Melbourne to start a Sport Lived mini season hockey programme. They met, and the rest, as they say, is sporting history.
The couple got engaged in October 2024 in Seville, and were married on 19 July 2025 at Kimbridge in Hampshire. We are delighted that they found each other thanks to their love of sport – the very essence of what Sport Lived is about!
Nicola and Chris are not the first couple to meet their match on a Sport Lived programme. They follow in the footsteps of Helen Daffern and Tom Swainston who met in Australia in 2008 and got married in 2016.
And we’re hoping they won’t be the last. In fact, we’ve heard on the romantic grapevine that two other couples who met during Sport Lived programmes are currently engaged. So hopefully we’ll be celebrating more Sport Lived alumni weddings very soon!
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