Darya Domracheva

The famous Belarusian biathlete Darya Domracheva is a four-time Olympic champion, silver and bronze medalist, two-time world champion, winner and medalist of the World Cup, Honored Master of Sport, and Hero of Belarus.

The Belarusian athlete was named the best biathlete of the year 2010 according to the Biathlon Award.

Worked for the Belarusian national biathlon team from 2006 (in 2005 she made her debut for the junior team) till 2018.

Coaches: Yury Albers (senior coach of the Belarus national team), Fedor Svoboda (senior coach of the Belarus national women's team), Alfred Eder (coach of the Belarus national women's team)

Darya Domracheva's main victories

Darya Domracheva was the first woman biathlete to win four gold medals at an Olympic Games in different years.

GOLD

4×6 km relay (PyeongChang 2018)

pursuit (Sochi 2014)

individual race (Sochi 2014)

mass start (Sochi 2014)

SILVER

Mass start (PyeongChang 2018)

BRONNESS

Individual race (Vancouver 2010)

Biathlon World Champion twice: in the pursuit (2012, Ruhpolding, Germany), in mass start (2013, Nove Mesto, Czech Republic)

Silver medal winner of the World Biathlon Championships: mixed relay (2008, Estersund, Sweden), mass start (2011, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia), sprint (2012, Ruhpolding, Germany), pursuit (2017, Hochfilzen, Austria)

Bronze medal winner of the World Biathlon Championship in the relay (2011, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia)

Winner of the Big Crystal Globe in the overall World Cup (2014/2015)

Silver medalist World Cup: 2011/2012, 2012/2013

Bronze medalist World Cup: 2013/2014, 2017/2018

Holder of the Small Crystal Globes: in mass start (2010/2011), in the pursuit and mass start of the World Cup 2011/2012, in mass start (2013/2014), in sprint and pursuit in 2014/15.

Biography of Daria Domracheva

Daria Domracheva was born in Minsk, but at the age of 4 she left for Khanty-Mansiysk together with her parents-architects. The future athlete's mother was the chief architect of the city of Nyagan, where the family lived for 15 years.

Darya Domracheva began her sports career there: in 1992, following her brother, she joined a skiing section under the guidance of coach Andrey Doroshenko. And in 1999 Darya was one of the first to attend the new biathlon school that had just opened in Nyagan. Daria Domracheva's first biathlon coach was Albert Musin.

In 2003, Daria Domracheva returned to her native Minsk and, at the invitation of her coaches, started training for the national team of Belarus.

Darya won her first international start for the Belarusian national team at the 2005 IBU Youth and Junior World Championships in Kontiolahti (Finland). The Belarusian biathlete won the sprint and pursuit and was 40th at the individual race (a diopter fell off at one of the shooting ranges, which resulted in five misses out of five on the third shot).

In 2006 Darya Domracheva took the 3rd place in the pursuit and the 4th place in the individual at the World Junior Championship in Presque Isle (USA).

In 2007 she picked up two silver medals in sprint and pursuit at the Junior World Championships in Vall Martello (Italy).

Apart from her athletic career, Domracheva has put special emphasis on education: the famous biathlete entered the Belarusian State University of Economics, where she graduated in 2009 with a degree in advertising in the tourism industry. The first higher education was followed by the second: in 2015 Daria Domracheva received a diploma in Business Law.

In July 2016, Daria Domracheva married a famous biathlete from Norway, Ole-Einar Bjorndalen. Soon the celebrity couple had a daughter, Ksenia.

June 25, 2018, the best Belarusian biathlete officially announced the end of her career: "It was not easy enough for me to pull myself together, I thought for a very long time, but it was time to dot the "i". I tried to find a compromise, which would allow me to combine bringing up my child and continuing my sport career. Unfortunately, I did not find the best solution for combining such important areas of life. My decision has been deliberate and not an easy one. I am ending my athletic career."

On February 18, 2019, four-time Olympic champion Darya Domracheva was seen off from the big sport after the Race of Legends festival in Raubichi Sports Complex.

World Cup and World Championships in Domracheva's career

Darya Domracheva made her World Cup debut in 2006. In the first round in Estersund, Sweden, she finished 16th in the sprint race and was the second of five Belarussian biathletes.

The 2006/2007 season was her first biathlon season as an adult. She took 22nd place in the World Cup.

In the 2008/2009 season Darya Domracheva is among the ten best biathletes in the world. However, she faced two unfortunate misunderstandings in Oberhof (Germany). In the mass start Daria shot standing up, not lying down, missed the target by mistake and dropped out of the race. A year later, leading the race again, Dasha hit someone else's target at the third range and received four penalty laps.

In 2009/2010 season Daria Domracheva won sprint and pursuit races (Kontialahti) and won silver in the individual (Holmenkollen).

In the 2011/2012 season Daria Domracheva placed second in the World Cup standings (1188 points) after Magdalena Neuner of Germany (1216). Darya Domracheva won two Small Crystal Globes in both mass start and pursuit events.

In anticipation of the 2012/2013 season, Darya Domracheva was one of the medal contenders in both the Biathlon World Cup and the World Championships in this sport. However, despite her good speed the Belarusian failed to shoot accurately. Darya Domracheva won the sprint in Hochfilzen in Austria and the individual race in Sochi during the Biathlon World Cup. The best Belarusian biathlete won gold in the mass start at the Biathlon World Championships in the Czech Republic. As a result of the season 2012/2013 Daria Domracheva finished second after the Norwegian Tora Berger, but did not win a single Crystal Globe at the World Cup.

Darya Domracheva's 2013/2014 season was truly triumphant, but in the overall World Cup standings, where Olympic results are not counted, Domracheva finished third (793 points). In the fight for the Big Crystal Globe the "Belarusian rocket" lost to the leader Kaisa Mäkäriäinen (Finland) and Tora Berger (Norway) who finished second. Nevertheless, at the end of the World Cup season 2013/2014 Domracheva won the Small Crystal Globe in the mass start.

Darya Domracheva finished the 2014/2015 biathlon season with a grand victory: at the end of the World Cup, the "Belarusian rocket" won her long-awaited Big Crystal Globe. Throughout all the stages Domracheva made it to the top step of the podium nine times and with 1092 points beat her closest rivals - Finnish biathlete Kaisa Mäkäriäinen (1044) and Ukrainian Valentina Semerenko (865). Darya has the most victories of the season - four in pursuit races (Pokljuka, Anterselva, Nove Mesto, Khanty-Mansiysk), twice in sprint races (Anterselva and Holmenkollen) and mass start (Ruhpolding and Oberhof), and was first in the individual race in Östersund, Sweden.

Darya Domracheva at the Olympics

In 2010, Darya Domracheva, 23, won her first Olympic medal in Vancouver, bronze in the 15km individual.

Four years later, the Olympic Games in Sochi brought the Belarusian biathlete a real triumph. Within 5 days, Darya Domracheva won three consecutive races and became a three-time Olympic champion, the first woman in biathlon to win three top awards at one Olympics.

Darya won her first gold in the 10-km pursuit. She started ninth and raced through the race, finishing ninth, with only one penalty at the last turn. As a result Domracheva became the first, beating the Norwegian Tora Berger (silver) and Thea Gregorin of Slovenia (bronze).

The second gold of the "Belarusian rocket" Darya Domracheva won in the 15 km individual race. That day the champion was on the podium together with another representative of Belarus Nadezhda Skardino (bronze) and Swiss biathlete Selina Gasparin (silver).

Darya Domracheva snatched her third gold of the Olympic Games in Sochi in the mass start 12.5km. Having missed only once on four shooting ranges she beat Czech Gabriela Soukalova (silver) and Tiril Ekhoff of Norway (bronze).

At the Games in Sochi Darya Domracheva broke the Olympic record of biathlete Katja Wilhelm. Moreover, Domracheva is the world's first three-time Olympic champion, who won all her victories in individual races.

At the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Darya Domracheva won silver in the mass start and gold in the women's 4×6 km relay.

Daria Domracheva: interesting facts about the athlete

The athlete has a video diary film "Darya Domracheva. Representing Belarus" (2010), where she talks about the world of big sports, her life in the team and her first victories.

In 2010, after the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, the Belarusian Post released stamps dedicated to Olympians, including Daria Domracheva.

In 2010 Darya Domracheva was named the Female Athlete of the Year in Belarus and received the title of Honored Master of Sports.

Daria Domracheva and Frenchman Simon Fourcade starred in a short humorous film "The Spy Who Loved Biathlon," released by the International Biathlon Union (IBU) at the end of the 2012/2013 season. The shooting, which took place in Antholz, Oslo, Sochi and Khanty-Mansiysk, featured biathlon stars Kaisa Makjarainen, Martin Fourcade, Bjorn Ferry, Olga Zaitseva...

Darya Domracheva was among the outstanding people of Belarus who took part in the opening ceremony of the National Flag Square on July 2, 2013.

Before the Games in Sochi, Daria Domracheva consulted with London 2012 Olympic champion "King of the small-bore rifle" Sergei Martynov and his trainer Alexander Ivanov on the shooting.

By Presidential Decree No. 66 of February 17, 2014, Daria Domracheva was awarded the title "Hero of Belarus" for her high professional skills and exceptional sporting achievements. The outstanding athlete became the first woman in the history of the country to be awarded this honorary title.

Darya Domracheva has been awarded the highest mark of recognition in the sport of skiing in Norway - the Holmenkollen Medal, which has been awarded since 1895. Only eight biathletes in history have received this award: Andrea Henkel, Ole Einar Bjorndalen and Michael Grays (2011), Magdalena Neuner and Emil Hegle Svendsen (2012), Tura Berger and Martin Fourcade (2013), Daria Domracheva (2014).

In 2018, the legendary biathlete received the interstate "Stars of the Commonwealth" award.