Aussie Olympian Tilly Kearns reveals the emotional moment her NFL star boyfriend surprised her in Paris
- Kearns Surprised by Long Distance NFL Star Friend
- Water polo player was shocked when he saw him in the stands in Paris
- Kearns was just minutes away from the gold medal match
Australian water polo player Tilly Kearns has revealed the touching moment her American football and long-distance player boyfriend surprised her at the Paris Olympics.
Kearns was playing for gold against Spain in the women’s water polo final at the Paris Olympics, but got the shock of her life when she walked into the swimming arena and saw her boyfriend Justin Dedich sitting in the stands.
Dedich, who plays for the Los Angeles Rams, is said to be 6,000 miles away preparing for an NFL game.
“First of all, he’s a rookie in the NFL and the next day he played his first ever NFL game, so it literally didn’t even cross my mind,” Kearns explained in a TikTok video.
“He was just doing his thing, I was doing my thing, we just knew we couldn’t support each other in person.”
Kearns is visibly shocked in the video as she sees Dedich in the stands cheering her on.
“This is one of my old water polo coaches, so I was already surprised when I saw him,” she says in the video.
‘Then I walk a little further and then I see him.’
Kearns was stunned when he saw her boyfriend Justin Dedich in the stands before her game
Dedich traveled to Paris when he heard that Kearns was playing for a gold medal
Kearns then explained how her friend was able to arrange the trip.
“When we won our semi-final to get into the gold medal game, he went to his head coach and was very rude and said, ‘If I go too far, can I still play?'” she said.
“And the coach was like, ‘Yeah man, what are you doing here? Go ahead.’ And so he got on a plane that night and flew.”
Dedich’s flight to Paris lasted less than 24 hours and then he was already on a plane home.
“I didn’t even get to see him after the game because he ran straight to the airport and got straight back on a plane, 11 hours back to America, to attend his first ever NFL game,” Kearns said.
‘Whom he killed, by the way.’
Kearns explained that after the match her boyfriend was immediately on a plane back to America
Kearns was born with top-level sports in her blood.
Her star footballer father, Phil Kearns, played in the Wallabies’ most successful period in the 1990s, while her mother Julie introduced her to the Olympics two weeks before she gave birth.
“My parents went to the opening ceremony in Sydney 2000 and I was in my mother’s womb. I was born the day after the closing ceremony,” Kearns said.
Tilly and her teammates at the Aussie Stingers won the silver medal in Paris.
The Stingers finished fifth at Kearns’ first Olympic Games in Tokyo, a result she called disappointing for several reasons.