Olympic gold medalist proposes with 2,738 yellow roses. The reason is so Gen Z

U.S. men’s four rowing team member Justin Best won a gold medal. Then a few days later, he got down on one knee proposed to his girlfriend, Lainey Duncan, in front of the Eiffel Tour with 2,738 yellow roses.

“Lainey Olivia Duncan, you are the love of my life. You have been with me since day one,” Best told Duncan as he began his proposal.

“I knew you were special. … It was the first date. I said to you, ‘I wanted to go to the Olympics,’ and you, without question, said ‘Yeah, absolutely. Go for it,’” he recalled on Aug. 5. “You are stunningly beautiful, ferociously intelligent. Your kindness is bent leaps and bounds — I don’t know anyone that doesn’t love you.”

“This is going to be the easiest question of my life. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and raise a family together. Lainey, will you marry me?”

Duncan, without hesitation, said yes after nine years together.

When asked if the specific number of yellow roses he proposed with had a special meaning behind it, Best shared that “each yellow rose represents a day that you and I have been together.”

“Obviously,” Best continued, “we communicated through Snapchat. Our streak is 2,738 right now. So there are 2,738 yellow roses from Snapchat. Our love is truly now immortalized.”

Duncan exclaimed that she is “so, so happy. This is the best day of my life!”

“I got the gold and the girl,” Best added after he proposed, “and she got the diamond!”

Best, who is 26 and a two-time Olympian, won gold in the 2,000-meter men’s four final on Aug. 1.