Darya Domracheva

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. 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 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'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. In 2009, she was writing her diploma thesis on the subject: Advertising in the tourism industry. Until 2014, Domracheva was an employee of the Belarusian branch of security agency KGB, one of the few to have retained its name from the Soviet Union era.

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.

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.

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.

Domracheva confirmed her pregnancy in April 2016, 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. 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.

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. They were married 16 July 2016. Domracheva gave birth to a daughter, Xenia, on 1 October 2016. She retired from competitions in June 2018 to focus on raising her daughter.

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.

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

Happy Birthday Darya Domracheva!