Ellie Holzman kept repeating it to herself: she would never date anyone shorter than her.
She was 1.91 meters tall, had played volleyball at the University of Illinois, and that idea had become so deeply ingrained in her that she did not even consider handsome guys who were shorter than her.
Lucas Byrd, her best friend since 2020, an NCAA wrestling champion and 23 centimeters shorter than her, a kind, healthy guy with whom they had a lot in common.
They met at a bar near campus, made it through the pandemic by video calling, and stayed there, in the gray area of friendship, for two whole years.
Everything changed in March 2025. Byrd won his first national title by defeating Drake Ayala and, as soon as the match ended, ran straight to the stands to hug Holzman.
The cameras captured it all, and commentator Mike Couzens summed it up live: “Love knows no boundaries, and it definitely knows no height”.