Great Sports Couples

I'm not one to embrace the whole Valentine's Day thing, but I was having trouble coming up with a topic today, so I decided to take the theme and run with it.  It's always cool when athletes hook up, especially when they're both good.  Here are some today's greatest sports couples, in no particular order:

• Sanya Richards-Ross & Aaron Ross: She's a two-time Olympic gold medalist and the 2009 World Champion in the 400 meters.  She'll be among the favorites this summer in London, where she'll hopefully take home her first career individual Olympic gold.  He's a cornerback for the New York Giants and a two-time Super Bowl winner.
• Misty-May Treanor & Matt Treanor: Misty's clearly the more accomplished member of this couple.  She's won back-to-back Olympic golds in beach volleyball and will go for No. 3 in London.  She also appeared on Dancing With the Stars.  He's actually had a decent Major League career as a backup catcher, and he's been to the last two World Series with the Rangers (although he didn't play against the Cardinals).
• Brooklyn Decker & Andy Roddick: Roddick's been the face of American men's tennis for a generation.  He only has one Grand Slam title--the 2003 U.S. Open, but only because he keeps running into Roger.  He's made four other Grand Slam finals, losing to Federer each time.  She's technically not an athlete, but she's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated more than he has, so I think it counts.
• Maria Sharapova & Sasha Vujacic: Even though he's currently stuck playing in Turkey because he couldn't get out of his lockout contract, I think we can all agree Sasha Vujacic might be the luckiest guy in the world.  He's engaged to Maria Sharapova.  We all know about Maria.  Three-time Grand Slam champion, former world No. 1, highest-earning female athlete in the world.  He's won two World Championships with the Lakers, but, frankly, who really cares?  I only know him as Maria's fiance.
• Candace Parker & Shelden Williams: Remember when Candace Parker was the best player in women's basketball?  Well, she took a little break from the WNBA to have a baby.  Now she's back, and I expect her to make her second Olympic team this summer.  She won two NCAA titles at Tennessee.  He won one at Duke.  Williams went to the Knicks as part of the Carmelo Anthony trade and is now on the Nets.
• Julia Mancuso & Aksel Lund Svindal: You might not know who either of these two people are, but they're both professional skiers.  Mancuso's American, and she's a three-time Olympic medalist, including a pair of silvers in Vancouver.  Svindal is from Norway.  He won one medal of each color at the Vancouver Olympics.
• Caroline Wozniacki & Rory McIlroy: These two used to have a wager going about who would win a major first.  Rory won that bet, winning the 2011 U.S. Open (the golf version).  Caroline's coming-out party was at the other U.S. Open in 2009, when she made the finals.  She was No. 1 in the world for most of the past year, but is still looking for her first Grand Slam title.
• Shen Xue & Zhao Hongbo: These are Chinese figure skaters who've been pairs partners since 1992.  They made their Olympic debut in 1998, then bronze in both 2002 and 2006.  In 2002, they also won the World Championship, becoming the first Chinese team to win a gold medal at the World Championships.  He proposed to her on the ice after their performance at the 2007 World Championships, and they promptly retired, only to return two years later.  And in 2010, they capped their careers by winning Olympic gold, the first ever for China in figure skating.

And, while these couples don't include current athletes, they're still pretty high-profile pairings of recently-retired stars:

• Steffi Graf & Andre Agassi: The two tennis champions have a combined 30 Grand Slam title and two Olympic gold medals between them.  Steffi's on the short list of greatest women's players ever, contributing 22 of those Grand Slam titles, and she was No. 1 for a record 377 weeks.  Andre's career was full of ups and downs, but there's no question about his place in tennis history, either.  He was part of a Golden Era of American men's tennis, and his rivalry with Pete Sampras was Federer-Nadal before Federer-Nadal was.  They've been married for 11 years and have two kids.  Jaden and Jaz are going to be phenomenal tennis players.
• Mia Hamm & Nomar Garciaparra: Mia Hamm is probably the greatest women's soccer player ever.  She played in a record 275 games for the U.S. National Team and scored 158 international goals, another record.  The U.S. won two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals during her career.  Nomar has one of the best names in baseball history.  He was really good for a long time before injures derailed his career.
• Gabrielle Reece & Laird Hamilton: One of the first sports "power couples," these two got married in 1997.  Reece was a beach volleyball pioneer, helping make the sport popular during its professional infancy in the mid-90s.  Hamilton is one of the best big-wave surfers in history.  He's also an actor.  He does a lot of those crazy, big-budget water stunts in major movies.

While they're not famous enough to make this list, I also want to give a shout-out to swimmers Matt Grevers and Annie Chandler.  Grevers won the silver in the 100 meter backstroke in Beijing.  After winning that event at a meet over the weekend, he called Chandler up to the medals stand with him and popped the question.  He's probably going to make the Olympic team.  She probably won't.

There are plenty of other sports couples that I didn't mention here.  Happy Valentine's Day to all of them, too.