Ryan Grzybowski’s photos used to tell the story of WWE Ukrainian Athlete

Freelance photographer Ryan Grzybowski, BSVC ’23, recently learned a valuable lesson about how being in the right place at the right time can be a big boost to your career. In 2021, while he was still a student at Ohio University, Grzybowski decided to cover a district high school swim meet in Geneva, Ohio, with the hope that a local newspaper would want to publish his photos. Little did he know at the time how valuable some of those photos would end up being.

“I really wasn’t expecting much to come of it,” said Grzybowski. “Some of my photos were published in the local paper, but I thought that was the end of it.”

Then, last fall Grzybowski was contacted by a producer in Los Angeles who was making a program for Roku about the first Ukrainian athlete signed by the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). The producer wanted to use photos of that athlete, Olena Sadovska (known as Zena Sterling in the WWE), taken by Grzybowski during the 2021 swim meet. Sadovska, who is both a swimmer and bodybuilder, made her in-ring WWE debut in 2023, but was a junior in high school back in 2021.

“I was surprised by the request,” said Grzybowski. “It was the right place at the right time for me for sure. When I took those pictures, I didn’t know she was going to be in the WWE. It taught me that all professional photographers are equal. Some with more experience might be covering bigger events, but you don’t know what you might be photographing that could be used down the line and could be published or used in a TV show.”

Grzybowski’s photos were used in the production to tell the story of Sadovska growing up in Ohio after her family left Ukraine. It aired on Roku earlier this year.

“This experience taught me that even the most mundane of things can turn into some of the most extraordinary situations and photos, even if it’s just a high school swimming event.”