Paul Skenes and Olivia Dunne among MLB’s most athletic couples

May 8th, 2024

is a College World Series champion, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, the game's No. 3 prospect and one of the best pitching prospects in recent memory. On Saturday, he'll make his Major League debut for the Pirates

In other words, he's kind of a big deal. And his girlfriend is someone who also knows what it's like to be the center of attention. Olivia Dunne, besides being an extremely popular social media personality, was a member of the LSU women's gymnastics team that won the national championship on April 20.

Skenes and Dunne are MLB's latest athletic "it couple." Their bond follows in the footsteps of these nine notable relationships between baseball players and other accomplished athletes.

Shohei Ohtani and Mamiko Tanaka
Ohtani surprised everyone prior to the 2024 season when he announced on social media that, yes, he is married. Before her identity was known, Ohtani described his spouse as a "normal Japanese woman,” but Tanaka's got some special skills on the hardwood. She played four seasons with the Fujitsu Red Wave of the Women's Japan Basketball League before retiring after the 2023 campaign. In her final season, the 5-foot-11 forward/center averaged 8.9 points and six rebounds per game over 28 contests. She also owns four medals from her time representing Japan in international basketball tournaments. Less than a month after the marriage became public, Tanaka was in the stands in Korea to enjoy her husband's first regular-season game with the Dodgers.

Dansby Swanson and Mallory Pugh
Swanson and Pugh began dating in 2017 after meeting through his then-Braves teammate and her brother-in-law, . Pugh, a member of the U.S. Women's National Team that won the 2019 FIFA World Cup, was the runner-up for National Women's Soccer League MVP while playing with the Chicago Red Stars in 2021, the same year Swanson's Braves won the World Series. Near the end of 2022 -- and less than two weeks after the couple's wedding -- Swanson joined Pugh in the Windy City by inking a seven-year deal with the Cubs.

Brandon Phillips and Jade Cargill
Is professional wrestling a sport? Maybe not in the purely traditional sense, but it does require outstanding athleticism, and Cargill has displayed that as she has emerged as one of the biggest female stars in the industry. A 5-foot-10 powerhouse who often overwhelms in-ring opponents with her incredible strength, Cargill held a championship belt in All Elite Wrestling from January 2022 into May 2023. In September 2023, she signed a multiyear contract with World Wrestling Entertainment. Cargill met Phillips in 2016, near the end of his 17-year MLB career that featured three All-Star selections and four Gold Gloves. The couple welcomed a daughter the following year.

Matt Treanor and Misty May
Treanor and May had a momentous 2004. They were engaged in March, about two months before Treanor made his MLB debut with the Marlins. In August, May and beach volleyball partner Kerri Walsh claimed their first Olympic gold medal. By November, Treanor and May were married. Treanor batted .221 with a .618 OPS in nine Major Leagues seasons, the last of which came in 2012. May retired from beach volleyball that year and was enshrined in the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 2016. She and Walsh dominated on the beach for more than a decade and dropped only one set in Olympic competition on their way to winning three consecutive golds.

Casey Daigle and Jennie Finch
Reaching the Majors is no small feat, and Daigle did that when he debuted with the D-backs in 2004. He pitched in parts of three big league seasons and posted a 7.16 ERA through 33 appearances (71 2/3 innings). Fair to say that his wife's work on the mound -- or rather, in the circle -- is a little more memorable. After an illustrious career at the University of Arizona, headlined by an NCAA-record 51 consecutive winning decisions and a national championship, Finch led Team USA to its third consecutive Olympic gold medal at the 2004 Summer Games. She and Daigle were married the following year. Finch also had a dominant stint in the National Pro Fastpitch softball league and added an Olympic silver medal in 2008.

Nomar Garciaparra and Mia Hamm
A true sports power couple for the beginning of the 21st century, Garciaparra was a two-time batting champion and Hamm was a soccer icon by the time they married in 2003. The next year was one of change for both; Nomar was traded to the Cubs during the '04 season, marking the end of his stellar nine-year run with the Red Sox. It was also the year Hamm hung up her cleats to conclude a decorated and prolific career. Hamm's accolades include two World Cups and three Olympic gold medals. She scored 158 goals and compiled a Team USA-record 144 assists through 275 international appearances.

Todd Zeile and Julianne McNamara
Zeile and McNamara wed in 1989, which was Zeile's rookie year in a 16-season career that eventually contained more than 2,000 big league hits and 1,100 RBIs. McNamara had already cemented her place in U.S. gymnastics history by the time she and Zeile tied the knot. She won three medals during the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, highlighted by a gold on the uneven bars thanks to her scoring a perfect 10. That Olympic gold medal was the first by a U.S. women's gymnast in an individual event and still the only one by an American on the uneven bars.

Ray Knight and Nancy Lopez
Knight and Lopez first met in 1978 following Knight's third season in the Majors and Lopez's fabulous first year on the LPGA Tour. She won her first major tournament that year en route to being named LPGA Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year as well as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. The couple married in 1982 and reached the pinnacle of their respective sport later in the decade. Lopez solidified her status as an all-time great by winning a couple dozen more tournaments and two more majors during the '80s. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987. The previous year, Knight was feted as World Series MVP after the Mets defeated the Red Sox in a seven-game classic.

Don Drysdale and Ann Meyers
Drysdale and Meyers were married for seven years before the pitcher passed away in July 1993. Two months prior, Meyers was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, thereby making Drysdale and Meyers the first married couple to be Hall of Famers in their respective sport. The right-hander won 209 games and three World Series titles over 14 seasons with the Dodgers before he made it to Cooperstown in 1984. While Drysdale was one of the best players of his generation, Meyers is a basketball trailblazer. Her legendary career at UCLA led to her being the first basketball player, male or female, to be a four-time All-American. In 1979, she became the first woman to sign a contract with an NBA team as part of a tryout with the Indiana Pacers, although she ultimately did not make the team.