French women's skiff sailors Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon got a romantic offer when they returned ashore from winning Olympic bronze on Friday and their respective partners both got down on one knee and proposed marriage.

Steyaert and Picon both said "oui," their partners told Reuters as they celebrated an emotional day with their families in a bar across the road from the Olympic sailing village.

"Our boyfriends said at the beginning of the project that if we won a medal we would be engaged, but mine said 'Only gold or silver,' so after the medal race I said, 'Okay so I will not be engaged,'" Steyaert told a press conference after the medal ceremony.

But when the sailors got back to the beach in Marseille, both their boyfriends were waiting to propose. "Of course, we had to say yes," Steyaert said as she flashed the engagement ring on her finger.

"It was an amazing moment on the beach," said Picon, joking that it had been easy for their boyfriends to promise marriage three years ago because at that time they did not think the pair would go on to win a medal in Marseille.

On the water, the French sailors could not reproduce the speed they had found in lighter winds and after stumbling on the start in the medal race they never got back into contention for gold, having to settle for bronze on overall points.

French fans and family gave the duo — dubbed 'Mama Team' — a rousing welcome when they came ashore, singing and sounding horns in celebration of their achievement.

"She plans to retire now," Picon's partner Jean-Emmanuel Mestre said, with their young daughter Lou adding: "from sport."

Asked later whether it was her last day as a professional sailor, Picon replied: "I don't know." First of all she intends to set off to circumnavigate the globe on a catamaran.

For Steyaert, the future is clearer. She plans to be in the classroom next term teaching young children.