SPOKANE, Wash. – It’s always great when the whole family roots for the same team, right? It makes watching a competition easier. But what if everyone is not on the same page? This family found out the hard way.
Nonstop Local spoke with one man who met his wife online: not swiping on dating apps but playing video games.
Little did he know he was playing with a champion.
I’m talking about Yunus Butt and Chelsea McClammer. Together, they are the McButts (no, I’m not making that up, it’s actually their couple nickname).
Both Chelsea and Yunus are avid gamers. They met as undergrads in a completely random online game and instantly became friends. They started gaming together regularly as they learned more about one another.
It was when they started sharing social media accounts that they also started to develop an attraction.
They decided to set up a real in-person date where Yunus flew from his home in Toronto all the way to Illinois, and eventually Yunus found out that Chelsea is an extremely successful Paralympic athlete who has won several medals.
So of course, it begs the question, who does Yunus root for when Chelsea competes against Canada? Yunus chose love… kind of.
“It wasn’t a super hard decision to cheer for her when it came to track and field,” said Butt. “But whenever we’re watching sled hockey or basketball or anything like that, I’m bleeding red and white. I’m not cheering for the US.”
Chelsea won’t be competing in this year’s Paralympics, but she will be watching and cheering for the US just a little bit louder than Yunus for Canada.
But Chelsea is used to being around divided houses. Her coach, Teresa Skinner, has a similar situation.
Take a look at this picture – it shows Skinner with McClammer at a qualifying race for the Paralympics back in the late 2000s. This is the picture that started all the rizz, aka the flirting, between Skinner and her future husband.
How?
The man who took the picture also would soon be her husband; they just didn’t know it yet.
David Greig works for the Canada track and field Paralympic team. He ran the event that Teresa and Chelsea were competing at. Greig took the picture and later texted it to Skinner in hopes of sparking a conversation, which it did.
Greig and Skinner had worked together several times and developed a lot of respect for each other. It was always strictly professional until David went out of his way to take that picture and start a conversation that led to texting, which turned into phone calls, and eventually dates.
Now they’ve been married for 13 years, and having met so many athletes from around the world, both Greig and Skinner say it’s about the people, not the country.
“I just love sports so much,” said Greig. “It could be the last person in the event or it’s some movement that they’ve made or it’s something super athletic…”
That’s why Skinner and Greig can support a team being successful even if it is not their team but make no mistake: when the United States plays Canada, they each have their side.
