The most beautiful Ukrainian athlete got married: who is her chosen one and what was her biggest fear

Yulia Levchenko, a silver medalist at the World Athletics Championships and one of the most beautiful athletes on the planet, got married 10 days before the start of the 2024 Olympics in Paris. On July 16, the 26-year-old famous high jumper married long-distance runner Yuriy Kishchenko, who defended his country with arms after the start of the full-scale invasion.

Before going to the registry office, the couple had been dating for more than eight years and had been planning to get married for a long time, but there were always some obstacles in the way of the lovers - competitions, the coronavirus pandemic, and even Yulia's unwillingness to deal with organizational issues.

The athletic couple has been together for a long time - approximately since the end of 2015-beginning of 2016. Back then, Yulia was just gaining popularity - she won the 2014 Summer Youth Games, qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics, and was recognized by fans as the most beautiful athlete of the Ukrainian national team at the competition in Brazil.

"I like it, I'm flattered, but I don't dwell on it. It's not the main thing," Yulia said about the title of the country's main beauty.

As for Kishchenko, back at the 2010 World Junior Championships, he ran the 3000-meter steeplechase. But at first, a hernia forced the athlete from Odesa region to switch to "smooth" distances and focus on 800 and 1500 meters.

Later, problems with his groin and back left him almost without competitions and a normal training process for a long time.

"In 2015, my groin hurt for six months, and I didn't train for about five and a half months. I've never had anything like that before in my career. I could even run with a hernia. And then I came to training and just couldn't take my foot out. I was advised to take strong painkillers and pump my leg at the same time. For two months, I did this for an hour and a half a day with a tourniquet in all possible ways," the athlete admitted.

But by 2018, Yuriy had gradually regained his form and won the Ukrainian championship. In 2019, he took part in international competitions, including the European Cross Country Championships, and won the Riga Cup at a distance of 800 meters. In addition, since 2018, Yuriy has already been elected to the FLAU Athletes Commission twice. By the way, the guy was called "Walking Wikipedia" in the sports community.

In May 2021, Kishchenko was supposed to take part in the European Team Championships as part of the Ukrainian national team, but the Blue and Yellows were suspended due to coronavirus cases in the team. However, in the summer, Yuriy became the national champion in the 1500 meters and made further plans, but eight months later, a full-scale war broke out, and the athlete went to defend his country with arms in hand.

"Now I am incredibly inspired and proud of how our people have become a real nation. But it's a shame that all this has come at such a high cost to us - the lost lives of our heroes, children and destroyed cities. At the same time, with every death of our soldiers or civilians, Ukrainian strength and anger only grow," Yuriy said after the February invasion of Russia.

The fact that her fiancé and father were at war was confirmed by Levchenko herself, who was abroad at the time but wanted to come home.

"My father and my future husband are still defending our country. They are doing everything they can to give me the opportunity to return to training. Now I'm abroad. The most difficult decision for me. But they said, "We are here to save your life and the lives of many other people." My heart is broken, the whole world wants to help, but I have only one dream - to return home. Many of my friends and family are now in Ukraine. Mentally, I am completely destroyed... I am praying for the salvation of our world," wrote the Bakhmut native.

But Yuriy had no regrets about his choice, "We are at home, I feel good, and I will defend Ukraine to the end. I believe that athletes should be an example for many people, because we are physically and mentally prepared for stressful situations. I really hope that after our victory, every Russian occupier will realize what they have done and that they behaved no better than the Nazis. But I think that the orcs will return in zinc coffins and to a state that will, in fact, no longer exist."

"We are going through a difficult path of formation of our state. The price of this is very high and will only increase. But for us, this is the war of the millennium. Throughout our history, people have tried to destroy, intimidate, relocate, and starve Ukraine. Our language was banned, our territories were seized and our land was taken away. And now Ukraine is facing a historic event in which we must win. And I know that the map is already laid out in such a way that we have no options but to win this match," the athlete believes.

After a while, Kishchenko returned to a relatively peaceful life and the track. In May 2023, Yuriy took part in the Kyiv team championships and added a second place in the 800-meter race to his silver medal on the first day of the competition.

"Thank God I have the opportunity to train, sometimes I feel a little guilty that I am at the stadium and not on duty," Yuriy said.

And in November 2023, Levchenko spoke honestly about her marriage situation and why she was delaying the wedding for so long.

"To be honest, the coronavirus started first, then the competition, then the season, then I went to training camp. I'm a person who really doesn't like to organize anything. For me, organization, time management and everything related to it is just a disaster - I avoid it by all means possible!" the athlete admitted in a conversation with Slava Varda.

Yulia noted that, of course, like every woman, she dreams of trying on a veil and a beautiful dress, but as soon as she starts thinking that she has to organize this whole holiday on her own, her desire is somehow postponed.

"Actually, now I feel it's time. Before it was somehow not the right time because of my nomadic life. If someone had told me earlier that I would be engaged for so long, I wouldn't have believed it. But that's life. It's okay, I think we'll get there, it just takes time," the athlete said.

Levchenko also admitted that she used to think about a super lavish wedding. But over time, her ideas about that special day changed.

"Now I think that I would like to have close family members, to have it as intimate as possible, to have everything close to home, small, comfortable. I just don't really like long celebrations when everyone is bored. I think that a fight at a wedding starts when the guests are a little tired and think about what to do next. So I wanted everything to be as compact as possible. But now with the war, a small holiday is already a big holiday," Levchenko said.

And Yulia remained true to her word. 10 days before the start of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, she had an unassuming wedding with her beloved, first getting married in a dress and sneakers at a Kyiv registry office, and then going to the site of their first tank with her family.

"Being Yulia's boyfriend or her husband would be stressful because 3.5 million men on the planet would hate you. I'm just kidding, men are not like that. If anything, we would feel that her boyfriend is really lucky," joked one of Levchenko's followers.

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