‘Heated Rivalry’s’ Connor Storrie & Hudson Williams Carry Olympic Torch in Italy

Ilya and Shane are carrying a torch for each other on the Crave/HBO Max breakout hit “Heated Rivalry,” and now the actors who play them are doing the same — as part of the Winter Olympics!

Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, suited up in pink-and-white tracksuits, appeared in Feltre, Italy, Sunday, where they took turns carrying the Olympic torch as part of the Milano Cortina 2026 relay.

The relay concludes February 6 in Milan ahead of the Winter Olympic Games, held there from February 6-22.

The guys were a crowd-pleasing pair, holding hands overhead triumphantly.

The photos, uploaded to Instagram by the official Winter Olympics Instagram account, were captioned, 🏑🔥 Olympic Flame + @hudsonwilliamsofficial & @connorstorrieofficial as torchbearers = ABSOLUTE CINEMA 🎬.”

One of the first to comment was “Heated Rivalry’s” creator, Jacob Tierney, along with Canada’s Olympic team.

“Heated Rivalry,” a rare series with gay characters as leads, has been a ratings juggernaut as audiences have become captivated by the passionate love story of fictional closeted hockey stars Ilya, a no-nonsense Russian, and Shane, a sensitive Canadian, both of them dealing with tremendous pressure to succeed — and to avoid disappointing their families and sponsors.

The show is such a fan-favorite it recently entered IMDb’s Top 250 TV series of all time, with its fifth of sixth episodes, entitled “I’ll Believe in Anything,” inspiring IMDb users to rate it a perfect 10.