Australian water polo star Tilly Kearns has revealed the touching moment her long-distance American football player boyfriend surprised her at the Paris Olympics.
Kearns played for gold against Spain in the women’s water polo final at the Paris Games – but got the shock of her life as she was walking into the swimming arena and spotted her boyfriend Justin Dedich in the stands.
Dedich, who plays for the Los Angeles Rams, was supposed to be 9000 km away preparing for an NFL match.
‘Firstly, he’s a rookie in the NFL and he had his first ever NFL game the next day, so it literally was not even a thought in my head,’ Kearns explained in a TikTok video.
‘Like, he was just doing his thing, I was doing my thing, we just knew we couldn’t be there to support each other in person to support each other.’
Kearns is visibly shocked in the video when she sees Dedich supporting her in the stands.
‘This is one of my old water polo coaches so I was already so surprised seeing him,’ she says during the video.
‘Then I walk a little bit further and this is the moment I see him.’
Kearns was stunned to see boyfriend Justin Dedich in the stands before her match
Dedich made the trip over to Paris when he heard Kearns was playing for a gold medal
Kearns then went on to explain how her boyfriend managed to make the trip happen.
‘Turns out that when we won our semi final to get into the gold medal game he went up to his head coach, really ballsy of him, and basically was like, “Tell me if I’m out of line, but can I go?”‘ she said.
‘And the coach was like, “Yeah man, what are you still doing here ? Go”. And so he got on a plane that night and flew.’
Dedich’s whirlwind trip to Paris lasted less than 24 hours and he was back on a plane home.
‘I couldn’t even see him after the game because he ran to the airport and got straight back on the flight, 11 hours back to America, to make it for his first ever NFL game,’ said Kearns.
‘Which, by the way, he killed it.’
Kearns explained that her boyfriend was straight back on a plane to America after the match
Kearns was born with elite sport in her veins.
Her footy star father, Phil Kearns, played during the Wallabies’ most successful era in the 1990s, while her mother Julie introduced her to the Olympics two weeks before giving birth.
‘My parents went to the Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony and I was in mum’s belly and I was born the day after the Closing Ceremony,’ Kearns said.
Tilly and her Aussie Stingers teammates took out the silver medal in Paris.
The Stingers finished fifth at Kearns’ first Olympics in Tokyo, a result she called disappointing for multiple reasons.
