Hockey Star Alex Ovechkin Met His Wife in 2008 and Slid Into Her DM's Seven Years Later

There must have been something in the air during the warmer months of 2014. In May, professional golfer Rory McIlroy called off his engagement to Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki. In a statement released to The Daily Mail, Rory said that days after the couple sent out their wedding invitations, he realized he wasn't ready for marriage.

Two months after this athletic power couple broke up, tennis player Maria Kirilenko ended things with Alex Ovechkin, who plays hockey for the Washington Capitals. In a statement, Maria said, "Our relationship is over, but I respect Sasha [Ovechkin] as a person and as an athlete, and I respectfully wish him further sporting success," reported ESPN.

Fortunately, Alex bounced back pretty quickly and was engaged a little over a year later. Who is his wife? Here's what we know.

Back in February 2015, Alex shared a very awkward photo to his Instagram that some believe was the hard launch of his post-engagement relationship. In it, he and an unnamed woman are shown in a ridiculously cropped photo where only half their faces can be seen. The caption was merely three heart-eye emojis. About a month later, the Russian Machine Never Breaks website shared that Alex posted a full photo with the same woman. This time, her identity was revealed.

The mystery girl was model Nastya Shubskaya. Beneath the full photo was a caption written in Russian that loosely translates to, "My girl, thank you for appearing in my life!!! I cherish you so much," followed by a heart emoji. The two were engaged to be married six months later, and shared the good news via yet another post to Instagram.

According to The Daily Mail, the couple first met in 2008 at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, but the hockey player didn't slide into the model's DM's until seven years later. The couple spent most of their early dating days Facetiming, and when he invited her to come to America to visit, Nastya stayed.

Nastya told The Washington Post about the somewhat awkward moment she and Alex got engaged. She was in the middle of washing her hair while in the shower when Alex threw open the door and got down on one knee. Shocked, she grabbed a towel and opened the shower door to find Alex kneeling with flowers. She recalled asking him why he couldn't wait, to which he said he wanted to do it "right now."

The couple shares two kids, Sergei, born in 2018 and named after Ovechkin’s late brother, and Ilya, born in 2020. Alex told The Post that he had always looked forward to having children. "I was kind of waiting for that moment when my kid is going to be around with me in the locker room," he said. "The culture that we have here, it is something special, and all the guys love the kids, and it is going to be fun for him as well."

Sadly, Nastya's mother won't be able to enjoy life as a grandmother as she passed away in August 2017. The Russian actor and director died of cancer at the age of 61.