The unexpected comparison, however, does not seem to rattle the Lake Placid, New York, native, who finished 8th in the Olympic trials alongside his sliding partner, Zachary DiGregorio, to secure a spot.
Hollander competed for Team USA in Beijing in 2022 and has since won the World Cup in 2023 and racked up a number of medals in the sport alongside DiGregorio, who will be joining Hollander for an Olympic reprise.
Before the Games begin on Feb. 6, however, Jones told NBC News she plans to make him watch the show in Italy.
The series, based on Rachel Reid’s romance novels, follows hockey phenom Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams) and his secret, decade-long romance with his rival, Russian-born Ilya Rozanov (played by Connor Storrie). The pair carry on their secret tryst for years until the season’s final episode, when they are found out by Hollander’s parents.
Representatives for Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the name similarity.
Since the series’ debut in late November, the show has become the internet’s latest obsession, inspiring a real-life hockey player to come out and catapulting its two breakout actors into super stardom. Williams and Storrie were even elected for the Olympic torch relay, carrying the torch in the 49th leg of the journey through Veneto on Sunday.
For Hollander, the comparison to a closeted professional fictional athlete isn’t jarring, considering the comments he sometimes receives as a doubles luge athlete.
“I mean, the sport that I participate in as well, already has a lot of gay connotations and gay jokes around it, especially during the Olympics, so this, I think, is going to make that tenfold and completely ramp up,” he said, laughing. “Luge always gets the gay jokes at the Olympics because it’s two guys in speed suits lying on top of each other. It’s kind of an easy one.”
