The 'Heated Rivalry' Stars Got To Carry Olympic Torch Through Italy—And Fans Are Cheering

Life seems to be imitating art for Heated Rivalry stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams.

Don't get too excited—this is not an announcement that the pair are a real couple now. But they are getting to bask in one of the highest honors for an athlete: carrying the Olympic torch.

The 2026 Winter Olympics kick off February 6 in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Northern Italy, which means the time-honored tradition of carrying the torch to the games' destination is under way.

And Storrie and Williams joined the route in the town of Feltre, Italy, walking through its streets with the torch held high—and the internet, not to mention the Olympics themselves, are losing their minds.

In case you live in an undersea cave and haven't heard by now, Heated Rivalry centers on the romance between two secretly gay professional hockey players played by Storrie and Williams, and it has become THE runaway TV sensation of late.

People are absolutely obsessed not just with the show, a low-budget underdog produced by Canadian network Crave, but the steamy and romantic relationship between the two stars' characters.

So suffice to say that their arrival together to the torch ceremony had fans absolutely losing it.

But it wasn't just the fans. The people behind the Olympics' social media accounts had a meltdown too! First of all, when they initially posted the announcement that Williams and Storrie had arrived in Feltre, they referred to them as "our pookies."

Which is already delightfully unhinged in the first place and, unsurprisingly, the post instantaneously went viral among both people who love the two stars and people who were in disbelief that the venerable, prestigious Olympics was tweeting about them like a lovelorn Gen Z'er.

But it turns out it was more than just the Olympics being in on the joke, because in a subsequent post it seems the person behind the games' X account was genuinely having a fangirl meltdown!

Along with a video of the stars, the account posted:

"Admin is unwell."

And is there really any other appropriate way to respond to a video of Williams calling Storrie "papi"? No. The answer is no, there is not.

It all sparked a giant lovefest on social media of people losing it over Storrie and Williams' torch run in the best way.

In these dark times, this is precisely the kind of life-affirming silliness we need. And it's quite a capper to the boundary-breaking and deeply moving winning streak that Heated Rivalry and its stars and creators have been on. Gold medals, all around.