On September 25, Oleksandr and Kateryna Usyk celebrated their sixteenth wedding anniversary. For some, it might just be a date on the calendar, but for them it is proof that a teenage crush can grow into a union able to withstand distance, loss, and even the trials of war. Behind the back of the undisputed world champion stands not only his team but also the woman who was with him back when he gave her a simple rose bought with his last coins.
Their story began at school in Simferopol: he was a 15-year-old boy just discovering boxing, she a 14-year-old girl who had moved from Krasnoyarsk. For Kateryna it was friendship, for Sasha — love at first sight. A legendary moment remains in their memory: before the Crimean Championship he promised that if he won, she would go on a date with him. The judges gave victory to his rival, but defeat didn’t stop him — with his last money he bought her a rose and asked her to be his girlfriend. She said yes.
Their youth was full of both romance and turbulence: meetings, first kisses, but also break-ups, when Katya decided she no longer wanted to suffer from his inattentiveness or “star” attitude. Yet fate brought them together again — after a phone call when Katya had an accident. That became their second chance, and a few years later they officially became husband and wife. On September 25, 2009, they married in Crimea — a modest, almost secret ceremony, without lavish celebrations, but with the absolute certainty that they were meant to be forever. At that time, Kateryna was already expecting their first daughter, Yelyzaveta.
Today, the Usyks are parents to four children: Yelyzaveta, Kyrylo, Mykhailo, and little Mariya. The family knows how to celebrate life — from their children’s first steps to the boxer’s greatest victories. But behind the celebrations stand many trials. In 2013 they nearly lost their son due to a medical mistake; during the war they lost their home in Vorzel and were split between Ukraine and Spain. Despite it all, their bond only grew stronger.
Oleksandr often jokes, calling himself the “king of henpecked husbands,” yet behind the humor lies an honest confession: his greatest strength is Katya. She is always by the ring, in the gym or in the stands, in prayer or with an embrace after the fight. “My champion. My hero. My pride,” she wrote after one of his victories. And perhaps in this simple phrase lies the essence of their love story: it has traveled from schoolyard jokes and a five-hryvnia rose to sixteen years of marriage filled with laughter, pain, triumphs, and unshakable faith in one another.
