Two days before the end of 2025, Sport.ua summarizes the results of the large-scale referendum whose aim is to determine the best athlete, coach and team of the year. In fact, our publication has identified the best athletes of the year 16 times since 2010. But this year, for the first time, we went beyond just the public’s choice and became the voice of our readers, as well as 50 experts, including star athletes, coaches and officials, as well as renowned reporters from various publications.

At the first stage of the plebiscite, the circle of candidates in each of the candidacies was determined by Sport.ua editorial observers. Fans and experts chose the best ones from the list we created. Experts determined the top three. Each first place winner was given 5 points, second place 3 points, and third place 1 point. The votes of site visitors were collected. Approximately 6,000 users participated in the voting. The winners of the fan survey received 30 points in total, the second-place athlete/coach/team received 20 points, and the third-place athlete/coach/team received 10 points.

By making the referendum so versatile, we expected to get the most objective results. However, now that everything is over, we are even discussing among ourselves the fairness of the results. But everyone has their own reasons and sympathies. The election has been held and its results will be written in the history of our media and Ukrainian sport in general.

Note that our survey included 12 Olympic champions, two sports ministers/National Olympic Committee presidents from different years, two-time NBA champions, world champions, Olympic medalists, elite coaches and elite officials. The list of surnames (Borzov, Turishcheva, Merleni, Gutzeit, Ruban, Pidgrushna, Shemyakina, Cheban, Osipenko-Radomskaya, Belenyuk, Kravatskaya, Zantaraya, Silantiev, Petrova and others) speaks for itself.

But in the end, in one of the nominations, it was the people’s choice that had a decisive influence on determining the award. We’re talking about the athlete of the year. According to the results of the expert voting, four-time world rowing champion Lyudmila Luzan looked confidently in the lead. However, according to our Internet experts, Lyudmila’s achievements are not enough to give her at least a place in the top three. Luzan did not receive a single point from the fans, but boxer Alexander Usik won, and these 30 points, combined with the votes of experts, were enough to get ahead of all rivals and become the best for the third time, according to Sport.ua (the first time our readers voted for Alexander in 2012, when he became the champion of the London Olympics, and the second time in 2022, when he beat Anthony Joshua again in 2022).

Usik has only had one fight in 2025; He knocked out Briton Daniel Dubois in the fifth round and became the absolute world heavyweight champion for the second time in his career. Now Alexander is 38 years old and in terms of greatness he is definitely at or near the same level as his idol Muhammad Ali.

According to Sport.ua, no one other than Usik has become the best athlete of the year three times. To date, judoka Daria Bilodid and track and field athlete Yaroslava Maguchikh have been awarded two such awards along with Alexander.

The best athletes of the year according to Sport.ua

• 2010 – Vitali Klitschko
• 2011 – Vladimir Klitschko
• 2012 – Alexander Usik
• 2013 – Bogdan Bondarenko
• 2014 – Valentina Semerenko
• 2015 – Oleg Vernyaev
• 2016 – Yuri Cheban
• 2017 – Vasily Lomachenko
• 2018 – Elina Svitolina
• 2019 – Daria Bilodid
• 2020 – Daria Bilodid
• 2021 – Zhan Belenyuk
• 2022 – Alexander Usik
• 2023 – Yaroslav Maguchih
• 2024 – Yaroslav Maguchih
• 2025 – Alexander Usik

The best team of 2025 was the Ukrainian women’s wrestling team, which had the best performance in history at the European Championships: 4 gold, 4 bronze, no medals in only two out of ten weight categories, took first place in the overall standings.

The obvious value of this result is that it helped coach Vladimir Yaremenko, who was previously Irina Kolyadenko’s personal mentor, win two Olympic medals and only from the beginning of last year took charge of the national team as a whole. Therefore, no one is surprised that the coach, along with the team, is recognized as the best.

However, thanks to expert voting, Bogdan Nikishin, the coach of the women’s epee fencing team, became the Coach of the Year. Under her leadership, Ukrainian women won the European Championships as a team, and Vlada Kharkova became world champion in the individual championship. Interestingly, neither Nikishin nor Yaremenko received any points from the fans. Just like there weren’t enough reader votes for the women’s wrestling team to get additional points. In both cases, expert opinion was decisive.

It is interesting that all three awards from each nomination were not ranked first by any voters.

However, all the sports and sports-related struggles of 2025 are now behind us. In summary, we were glad to have someone to choose from. And most importantly, we are grateful to the Defense Forces for the fact that, thanks to their sacrifice, Ukraine is represented on world geographical and sports maps. We hope that 2026 will offer us the victories we desire most, along with sporting victories.

Meanwhile, we congratulate Athlete of the Year Alexander Usik, Coach of the Year Bogdan Nikishin and the women’s wrestling team, Team of the Year, for their well-deserved award. Victories in sports show the world that Ukraine is alive, despite the war.