Darya Domracheva

Dárya Vladímirovna Dómracheva (Belarusian: Дар’я Уладзіміраўна Домрачава, Russian: Дарья Владимировна Домрачева; born 3 August 1986) is a retired Belarusian biathlete and coach who competed in the Biathlon World Cup from 2006 to 2018.[1] She won a gold medal in the 4×6 km relay and a silver medal in the mass start competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics, three gold medals in the pursuit, individual, and mass start competitions at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and a bronze medal in the individual competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics.[2] She was a Biathlon World Cup overall winner for the 2014–15 season.

Darya Domracheva
Personal information
Full nameDarya Vladimirovna Domracheva
Born3 August 1986 (1986-08-03) (age 34)
Minsk, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union
(now Belarus)
Height1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Spouse(s)
​
(
m. 2016)
Websitedaryadomracheva.by
Professional information
SportBiathlon
ClubDynamo Minsk
Olympic Games
Teams3 (2010, 2014, 2018)
Medals6 (4 gold)
World Championships
Teams8 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017)
Medals6 (2 gold)
World Cup
Seasons9
Individual victories34
Individual podiums81
Overall titles1
Discipline titles5

Career

Domracheva started her sports career with cross-country skiing in 1992 but switched to biathlon in 1999. She originally represented Russia at the junior level but received an offer to transfer to Belarus in 2004.[3] She joined Belarus’ national biathlon team in 2006 (having made her junior team debut in 2005). Domracheva won sprint and pursuit at the 2005 IBU Youth and Junior World Championships in Kontiolahti (Finland). She finished 40th in the individual race (the diopter fell off, and she missed 5 targets at the third shooting stage.)

Domracheva took 3rd place in the pursuit and 4th place in the individual events at the 2006 Junior World Championships in Presque Isle, Maine. In 2007, she picked up two silver medals in sprint and pursuit at the Junior World Championships in Martell, Italy.[4]

Her breakthrough came during the 2008/2009 season when she earned two third places and one second place.

At the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, she won the bronze medal in the Women's 15-kilometer individual race at the Whistler Olympic Park venue. Later in the same season, on 13 March, she won her first World Cup race in the sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland. The next day she also won the pursuit.

Domracheva was named Belarus' Female Athlete of the Year in 2010, and was also given the title of Honoured Master of Sport that year.[3]

She continued to improve after the Vancouver Olympics, winning 10 world cup races between the 2011–2013 seasons, as well as becoming the world champion in the pursuit in 2012, and the mass start in 2013.

In 2014 Domracheva was given the Hero of Belarus medal, after winning three gold medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

In August 2015, Domracheva decided to skip the 2015–16 World Cup season due to mononucleosis which was diagnosed in July.[5][6][7]

Domracheva confirmed her pregnancy in April 2016,[8] and said that she plans to return to compete in 2017. Domracheva returned to the World Cup in January 2017 for the 2016–17 season. Her comeback ended up being successful, winning a silver medal at the 2017 world championships in the individual pursuit in preparation for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, she was unable to defend her Olympic titles from Sochi; however she was still able to pick up a silver medal in the mass start individually, and helped the Belarusian team win the historic first Olympic gold medal in the relay.[9] She finished the 2018 season ranked 3rd overall in the Biathlon World Cup, and announced her retirement in June, citing difficulties in combining both elite sport and parenting. She finished her career as Belarus’ most decorated winter Olympian, and most decorated Olympian of either the winter or summer games to compete for Belarus as an independent nation; gymnasts Olga Korbut and Vitaly Scherbo both have more medals, but Korbut competed for the Soviet Union and Scherbo only received 4 of his medals competing for Belarus; his remaining medals were won as part of the Unified Team. She was coached by former World Champion and Olympic medalist Klaus Siebert.[10]

In September 2019, she along with her husband Ole Einar Björndalen were appointed as biathlon coaches for the Chinese team, preparing the team for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.[11]

World Cup

Domracheva won the Pursuit World Cup 2011–2012 and won the Mass Start World Cup 2011–2012. In the Total World Cup 2011–2012 she ended the season second with 1188 points behind Magdalena Neuner's 1216 points.

In the 2010–2011 season Domracheva won the Mass Start World Cup.[12]

Her biggest achievement was in the 2014–2015 when was Domracheva won the Overall World Cup title with 1092 points, 48 points more than second and twice winner Kaisa Mäkäräinen. She also won the Sprint World Cup title in that season.

Season Overall Sprint Pursuit Individual Mass Start
Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position
2006/0716/2729722nd9/1016415th6/812515th0/4––1/5842nd
2007/0818/2622626th10/1012418th6/87622nd0/3––2/52634th
2008/0923/267767th10/103295th6/72148th3/48714th4/51467th
2009/1022/257706th9/102836th5/61994th3/41214th5/51408th
2010/1126/268626th10/103237th7/72525th4/45129th5/52361st
2011/1226/2611882nd10/104712nd8/83921st3/31163rd5/52501st
2012/1326/269242nd10/103512nd8/82516th3/31223rd5/52002nd
2013/1420/227933rd8/92543rd7/82963rd2/2922nd3/31511st
2014/1525/2510921st10/104161st7/73472nd3/31392nd5/52063rd
2015/16Did not start due to mononucleosis[7]
2016/1716/2639424th6/913521st6/916119th2/34226th2/55629th
2017/1818/228043rd7/83132nd5/72375th2/2655th4/51894th

Overall record
Result Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass Start Relay Mixed
 Relay[a]		 Total
Individual Events Team Events All Events
1st place––––––––0
2nd place––––––––0
3rd place––––––––0
Podiums––––––––0
4–10–33–5–6511
11–20–41–11527
21–40–431––8–8
41–60–1––––1–1
Others––––––––0
DNF––11––2–2
DSQ––––––––0
Starts–12826122729
* Results in all IBU World Cup races, Olympics and World Championships. Statistics as of 16 December 2007.

Record

Olympic Games

6 medals (4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay[a]
2010 Vancouver Bronze 8th 15th 6th 7th N/A
2014 Sochi Gold 9th Gold Gold 5th –
2018 Pyeongchang 27th 9th 37th Silver Gold 5th

World Championships

7 medals (2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze)

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
2007 Antholz-Anterselva – 13th 22nd DNF 5th 13th
2008 Östersund – 46th 25th – 5th Silver
2009 Pyeongchang 11th 53rd 5th 6th 4th 9th
2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Not held in an Olympic season 9th
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 19th 26th 35th Silver Bronze 10th
2012 Ruhpolding 25th Silver Gold 5th 4th 6th
2013 Nové Město 33rd 43rd 25th Gold 7th 11th
2015 Kontiolahti 16th 25th 7th 4th 7th 4th
2016 Oslo – – – – – –
2017 Hochfilzen 13th 27th Silver 19th 9th –

Individual victories

34 victories (9 Sp, 11 Pu, 4 In, 10 MS)

No. Season Date Location Discipline Level
12009/1013 March 2010 Kontiolahti, Finland7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
214 March 2010 Kontiolahti, Finland10 km PursuitWorld Cup
32010/1120 March 2011 Oslo Holmenkollen, Norway12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
42011/121 December 2011 Östersund, Sweden15 km IndividualWorld Cup
510 December 2011 Hochfilzen, Austria10 km PursuitWorld Cup
622 January 2012 Antholz, Italy12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
74 March 2012 Ruhpolding, Germany10 km PursuitWorld Championships
817 March 2012 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia10 km PursuitWorld Cup
918 March 2012 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
102012/137 December 2012 Hochfilzen, Austria7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
1117 February 2013 Nové Město, Czech Republic12.5 km Mass StartWorld Championships
127 March 2013 Sochi, Russia15 km IndividualWorld Cup
132013/143 January 2014 Oberhof, Germany7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
144 January 2014 Oberhof, Germany10 km PursuitWorld Cup
1511 February 2014 Sochi, Russia10 km PursuitWinter Olympic Games
1614 February 2014 Sochi, Russia15 km IndividualWinter Olympic Games
1717 February 2014 Sochi, Russia12.5 km Mass StartWinter Olympic Games
189 March 2014 Pokljuka, Slovenia12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
1920 March 2014 Oslo Holmenkollen, Norway7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
202014/154 December 2014 Östersund, Sweden15 km IndividualWorld Cup
2120 December 2014 Pokljuka, Slovenia10 km PursuitWorld Cup
2211 January 2015 Oberhof, Germany12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
2318 January 2015 Ruhpolding, Germany12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
2423 January 2015 Antholz, Italy7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
2524 January 2015 Antholz, Italy10 km PursuitWorld Cup
268 February 2015 Nové Město, Czech Republic10 km PursuitWorld Cup
2714 February 2015 Oslo Holmenkollen, Norway7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
2821 March 2015 Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia10 km PursuitWorld Cup
292017/188 December 2017 Hochfilzen, Austria7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
3021 January 2018 Antholz, Italy12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
319 March 2018 Kontiolahti, Finland7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
3218 March 2018 Oslo Holmenkollen, Norway10 km PursuitWorld Cup
3323 March 2018 Tyumen, Russia7.5 km SprintWorld Cup
3425 March 2018 Tyumen, Russia12.5 km Mass StartWorld Cup
* Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.

Personal life
Domracheva at the World Championships in Östersund 2008

Domracheva was born in Minsk. When she was four, her parents, who are architects, moved to the small town of Nyagan in Siberia. Domracheva started skiing when she was six. In cross-country ski races she was competing with boys, as she had no rivals among girls. A biathlon school was opened in Nyagan in 1999, which Domracheva attended.

Domracheva attended university in Tyumen, and studied sports management from 2002 until 2003.

Domracheva's family moved back to Minsk in 2003. There was no faculty of Sports Management in Minsk, so Domracheva changed to studying Tourism Management at the Belarusian State Economic University.[3] In 2009, she was writing her diploma thesis on the subject: Advertising in the tourism industry.[13]. Until 2014, Domracheva was an employee of the Belarusian branch of security agency KGB,[14] one of the few to have retained its name from the Soviet Union era.

Domracheva presented the voting result of Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 final on 18 May.

On 5 April 2016, Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen confirmed that he and Domracheva are in a relationship and that Domracheva would give birth to their first child in October 2016.[15] They were married 16 July 2016.[16] Domracheva gave birth to a daughter, Xenia, on 1 October 2016.[17] She retired from competitions in June 2018 to focus on raising her daughter.[1]

During the 2020 Belarusian protests, Domracheva called on riot police to stop using violence against protesters and to resolve conflict through peaceful means.[18]

Film

Domracheva used a video camera to document herself, her teammates and athletes from other countries from 2008 until after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The 500 hours of material was edited into a 50-minute movie. The movie gives a unique insight into the life of world class athletes during the whole year, from the few weeks of relaxation and rest in the spring, through the hard training during the summer and the fall, to the competition season between December and March. The movie shows athletes from many countries, living together, traveling together and competing together.[19]

gollark: Of course. All of them aren't mine, after all.
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gollark: Markdown parsing definitely is. Please use an existing Markdown library.
gollark: * osmarksßsoftware™
gollark: https://github.com/osmarks/website/blob/master/src/index.js

References
  1. Четырехкратная олимпийская чемпионка Дарья Домрачева объявила о завершении карьеры. TASS.ru (25 June 2018)
  2. Darya Domracheva. sports-reference.com
  3. "Athletes: Darya Domracheva". sochi2014. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  4. Darya Domracheva. Official Website of the Republic of Belarus. Belarus.by. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  5. "Olympic champion Darya Domracheva to miss biathlon season". Zee News. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  6. Mononucleosis Hits Darya Domracheva Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Darya Domracheva to Skip 2015–16 Biathlon Season Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Domracheva, Darya. "Pregnant Domracheva plans to return to sport in January 2017". Retrieved 5 April 2016 – via belta.by.
  9. "BELARUS TAKE WOMEN'S BIATHLON 4X6KM RELAY GOLD". Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  10. "Klaus Siebert: Biathlon is My Life". International Biathlon Union. 7 January 2012. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
  11. OlympicTalk (1 September 2019). "China continues big-name Winter Olympic coaching hires with biathlon king". OlympicTalk. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  12. IBU official result page Archived 1 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine. biathlonresults.com
  13. Domracheva-Interview: "Sports – rather than hanging around" Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. biathlonworld.com (22 January 2009). Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  14. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/22/former-kgb-agent-darya-domracheva-wins-biathlon-gold-medal-at-winter-olympics
  15. Zaccardi, Nick. (5 April 2016) Ole Einar Bjoerndalen eyes 7th Olympics, family with another Sochi superstar – OlympicTalk. Olympics.nbcsports.com. Retrieved 25 June 2018.
  16. "Ole Einar Bjørndalen – Timeline | Facebook". Retrieved 16 July 2016 – via Facebook.
  17. Zaccardi, Nick (5 January 2017). "World's top biathlete returns three months after childbirth". NBCSports.com. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  18. https://charter97.org/en/news/2020/8/12/389275/
  19. Darya Domracheva. Representing Belarus Archived 26 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. 2b.by. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
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