US women’s soccer player Kristie Mewis has confirmed that she is dating Australia’s Sam Kerr, with the couple sharing a series of romantic photos on Instagram just days after they sparked rumors of a romance by enjoying a tender embrace on the field at the Olympics.
Kristie, 30, and Sam, 27, took their relationship public on Sunday when both women posted images of themselves on their respective Instagram accounts, allowing their pictures to tell a thousand words.
While Kristie – who plays for professional soccer team the Houston Dash – shared a sweet selfie on her Instagram Stories, while Sam made very clear the nature of their relationship when she posted a polaroid photo of the two women kissing while Kristie was perched in her lap.
She uploaded the photo to her account with just a simple red heart, but made sure to tag her new girlfriend in the snap so there could be no doubt about her identity.
Confirmation: US women’s soccer star Kristie Mewis has confirmed her relationship with Australian player Sam Kerr, days after sparking romance rumors at the Olympics
Together: While Sam, 27, posted a polaroid photo of the two women kissing on her Instagram, Kristie, 30, shared this selfie of the couple on her Stories
Where it all began: Rumors about the couple’s romance first spread after Kristie was seen comforting Sam on the field after the Australian team lost to the US in the bronze-medal game
In the snap, which appears to have been taken in a restaurant, Kristie and Sam are both dressed in casual clothing, with the latter sporting a red T-shirt, while her girlfriend is seen wearing a graphic black T-shirt and tiny shorts.
Kristie’s blonde hair hung over her face as the pair shared a kiss and she held her phone and a face mask in her hands as she wrapped her arms around Sam.
Both women have since shared snaps from Miami, Florida, suggesting that they are enjoying a well-earned romantic break together after representing their respective countries in the Tokyo Olympics – where the US side faced a humiliating defeat to Canada in the semi-final, ending their chances of defending the gold medal they won in Rio in 2016.
They managed to salvage their medal hopes in their final game against Australia, in which they claimed bronze – and during which Sam and Kristie first sparked serious rumors about their romance.
Following the Australian side’s 4-3 defeat at the hands of the US players, Kristie was seen comforting Sam, with the duo pictured sitting on the field together while locked in a tender embrace.
Kristie was seen leaning her face into Sam’s neck as the pair sat on the grass at the end of the game, while her girlfriend wrapped an arm around her back.
Sparking rumors: At one stage, Kristie nuzzled her face into Sam’s shoulder as she wrapped an arm around her back in return
Getting close: The soccer stars sparked romance rumors at the Tokyo Olympics last week, after Kristie was seen comforting Sam on the field following the Matildas’ devastating defeat
Speculation about the nature of the duo’s relationship quickly spread across social media – with more fuel being added to the fire when it was revealed that Sam had ended her seven-year romance with Chicago Red Stars player Nikki Stanton.
According to Australian publication The Daily Telegraph, Sam – who is based in the UK, where she plays for Chelsea – and Nikki split in the lead-up to the Olympics, with sources telling the publication that their relationship had struggled to survive with the two women living so far apart.
Insiders said that Sam had told friends she had ‘fallen out of love’ with Nikki, who she first met in 2014 while they were both playing soccer in the U.S.
Sources close to both Nikki and Sam confirmed their split to the newspaper, and both women have now unfollowed each other on social media.
‘Sam was the one who ended things and Nikki was obviously upset but she is healing,’ a friend told the publication.
Meanwhile, a source revealed that Sam was in good spirits during her time spent in the Olympic Village, saying: ‘If there is any sadness around the break-up it certainly wasn’t evident.’
Ex factor: Their relationship comes after Sam’s recent split from her girlfriend of seven years, fellow American soccer player Nikki Stanton (pictured)
End of the road: ‘Sam was the one who ended things and Nikki was obviously upset but she is healing,’ a friend told The Daily Telegraph of their split
Other than sharing their romantic photos on social media, the couple has yet to publicly comment on their new relationship, and it is unclear when exactly they started dating, or how exactly they met.
While Sam has been living in the UK since the end of 2019 – having signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with Chelsea that began in the second half of the 2019/2020 season – Kristie is still based in the US, where she has been playing for the Houston Dash since 2017.
Prior to that, Kristie played just one game for the Chicago Red Stars – the same side that Sam’s now-ex-girlfriend Nikki currently plays for – having been traded to the team by Washington Spirit.
It may well be that Sam and Kristie met through the midwestern team; Sam spent two years playing for the Chicago Red Stars before she signed with Chelsea and moved to the UK.
While the couple has only just confirmed their romance, eagle-eyed soccer fans began speculating that the pair were dating before the Olympics began – calling out the fact that Kristie had left several flirty comments on Sam’s Instagram posts.
On July 8, Sam posted a snap of herself and her bikini-clad teammates enjoying a day of sunshine on a boat in Australia – on which Kristie commented: ‘Keen on one in particular,’ before jokingly adding, ‘Oops sorry that was the hacker.’
Breadcrumbs: Kristie first began hinting that the pair were dating when she began leaving flirty comments on Sam’s Instagram posts back in June
Back in mid-June, Kristie dropped another hint about their romance when she branded Sam ‘hot af’ in a comment posted on a photo of the Australian soccer star at a training session with the national team.
Sam returned the favor by jokingly trolling Kristie on social media; on July 16, she mocked her girlfriend’s pale skin in a snap taken upon the US team’s arrival in Tokyo.
‘Someone needs a tan,’ Sam wrote alongside the image of Kristie posing with teammates Megan Rapinoe, Sam Mewis – her sister – and Lynn Williams.
The new couple’s decision to take their romance public was met with a slew of praise from their fellow soccer stars, with players from both their home nations celebrating the move in the comments section of Sam’s post.
‘Here they areeeeeeeee,’ Australian player Caitlin Foord wrote, while Sam’s Chelsea teammate Niamh Charles called the duo ‘cayoooot’.
Other supportive comments followed from the likes of Drew Spence, Mandy Freeman, and Emily Van Egmond.