Team USA Olympian Yared Nuguse is giving fans a major look into his love life.
The athlete, 25, came out by hard-launching his relationship with his boyfriend, Julian Falco, via Instagram. “Introducing my boyfriend, Julian. Can’t believe we’re already one year in my love 💛,” he captioned a slideshow of pics of the two on Friday, March 28. He added in parentheses, “Don’t act so surprised.”
The photos included selfies of the pair and pics from their year full of adventures together, from singing karaoke to dinner dates to posing underneath a heart-shaped arch. The post’s slide featured a funny clip of Falco flailing his arms around while playing a VR video game.
Several of Nuguse’s fellow athletes shared their happiness for the couple in the post’s comments section. “Awe love this news ❤️☺️ happy anniversary!!” Canadian long-distance runner Gabriela DeBues-Stafford commented. Team USA track-and-field Paralympian Hunter Woodhall left two red heart emojis underneath the post, while Team USA middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz commented, “Obsessed 🥹❤️.”
The post marked the first time Nuguse featured his boyfriend on his Instagram, while Falco has his page set to private. According to his LinkedIn profile, Falco graduated with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from The University of Texas at Austin in 2022.
Nuguse, for his part, ran cross country at Dupont Manual High Schooll in Louisville, Kentucky, before becoming a student athlete at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to competing for the school’s cross country and track and field teams, Nuguse earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 2021 and a master of science degree in management in the following year.
Nuguse scored multiple titles during his time at Notre Dame, including the 2021 ACC Men’s Outdoor Track Performer of the Year, ACC Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Scholar Athlete and multiple national championship titles, per the school’s website.
Nicknamed “The Goose,” Nuguse qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after his graduation but had to pull out of the Games after suffering a quad strain.
“It was getting better each day to where I thought I would be fine come race day, but I was still having difficulty running at faster paces before the race,” he shared via Instagram in August 2021. “Being honest with myself after my warm-up, I knew I couldn’t finish the race. There was no point in making my injury worse than it already was when I knew I couldn’t succeed, which is such a hard thing to accept.”
Luckily, he bounced back and traveled to Paris to compete in the 2024 Olympics, where he earned a bronze medal in the men’s 1,500-meter race.
“Thank you to everyone who’s supported me, even if you didn’t know who I was before this,” he wrote in an August 2024 Instagram post alongside snaps from his Paris Olympics experience. “I know I’m a little goofy, and probably not your standard medalist, but you continue to cheer me on anyway and I really appreciate that.”
Among the many Nuguse thanked, he gave a fun shout-out to Taylor Swift “for the inspiration on the amazing shirts.” His family and friends sported customized t-shirts inspired by Swift’s Eras Tour merch, only they featured pictures of Nuguse instead of the Grammy winner.
