Olympic swimming champion Stephanie Rice confirms engagement to partner Mark Lassey

Olympic swimming champion Stephanie Rice has announced her engagement to partner Mark Lassey just weeks after the pair confirmed their relationship.

On Thursday night, the 36-year-old former swimmer, who is currently living in Dubai, revealed Lassey - a Perth pastor and father-of-three - had proposed at Atlantis the Royal in Dubai.

“Here’s to fresh starts and second chances … Yes to a lifetime with you,” Rice wrote on Instagram.

“Seek your happiness in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desire. ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭37‬:‭4‬.”

Rice previously revealed the pair were in a long-distance relationship, having met through a mutual friend earlier this year.

“When we met almost five months ago, we both knew this was different,” she said in July.

“Because of the complexities of our lives, we wanted to keep these first few months between close family and friends and enjoy the wonder of falling in love.

“We come from such different backgrounds, so when a mutual friend saw the potential and connected us, we were both pretty unsure the other would be interested… not to mention the fact we live on opposite sides of the globe.

“But as God would have it, that first phone conversation made us feel like this was exactly where we were both meant to end up.

“Since then, we’ve been so blessed that our work has taken us around the world, allowing us to spend a few days together on either side of our commitments, hanging out in different cities, meeting each other’s friends and family, and discovering what a life together will look like.

“Living halfway across the world from each other in different time zones has had its challenges (thank God for Zoom) but God has been so good and so present in every step of our journey, which gives us an unwavering faith that our future will be even more extraordinary through Him.”

Rice attends the Kingdom City Church in Dubai, the same church where Lassey is a pastor in Perth.