“The worst thing is the first victory”

The most titled sports couple in the world - Daria Domracheva and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen - assure that doping is not needed for the highest results

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Daria Domracheva biathletes, multiple world and Olympic champions /Andrey Gordeev / Vedomosti

Doping does not improve athletic performance - the same thing can be achieved with persistent, consistent hard work, say eight-time Olympic and 20-time world champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and his wife, three-time Olympic and two-time world champion Daria Domracheva. Vedomosti interviewed them back in November, but it comes out precisely at the moment when the doping issue in Russia is especially loud.

What other than hard work? - At least not a feast. Daria lights up when she starts talking about dancing! And Ole Einar Bjoerndalen gets a little animated when it comes to cars.

– You and I are sitting in a Porsche. When driving a car, you need to restrain yourself and not exceed the speed limit. But in a biathlon race, on the contrary, you have to give it your all. The ability to manage oneself and one’s desires when a person is already mature is understandable. How did you cope with not being distracted by pleasant things during your childhood and adolescence? And the second question: while training as a child, did you already dream of Olympic gold, world championship gold? Or did you just enjoy skiing and shooting rifles?

Daria: You say that when driving a car you must restrain yourself, observe the speed limit, etc. But in biathlon there is shooting - and it obliges you to restrain yourself. It's important to find the shifter lever to go from hot racing to shooting cold - and then instantly back to top speed. In childhood, every child and teenager is faced with temptations: to dance at a disco more often and longer, to go out with friends. But perhaps it is self-control that distinguishes those children who achieve success in the future. As a child, my friends constantly tried to egg me on: “Come on, what’s this training for you, let’s go for a walk.”

– Did they also train with you?

Daria: No, we didn’t train, we studied in the same class. But I didn’t even think about missing a workout. So after some time, they also realized that persuasion was useless, and they began to make fun of themselves: “Let’s see how Dasha will soon become a champion, and we...”

We still communicate with these girls, they became wonderful mothers, both received an excellent education, each is developing in their own field, and, of course, they also achieve success, maybe not world-class, but they are definitely fulfilled. That is, becoming a champion is not the most important thing in life, but if you set a goal for yourself, then it is important to limit yourself in some way.

– At that moment did you think: “I will be a champion”?

Daria: It is self-control and goal setting already in childhood that probably makes it possible to achieve this goal later. When I was six and just started skiing, my parents and I came to the ski resort - the older athletes in beautiful racing ski suits seemed like incredible champions to me! I wanted to feel the same feeling of flying on skis. Probably, in the first year of training I already realized that I wanted to be a world champion. For some reason, there was no thought about Olympic medals. And at every hard training session, at every difficult section of the training route, I thought in my mind: if I complete this climb, I will become a world champion. This is such a small momentary overcoming of oneself, small steps, small grains, which later add up to the big picture and the opportunity to achieve big goals.

– Is this overcoming a reward for you?

Daria: Yes, even during training you feel like a champion. After all, the path to achieving any goal is often even more beautiful than the moment of possessing this reward itself. A huge path of character development, which becomes an invaluable lesson for life. Although, of course, if this path does not lead to achieving the goal, it may lose much of its charm.

Ole: I started my career quite early – I was eight or seven years old. I started not with biathlon, but with cross-country skiing, because everyone in the area was involved in cross-country skiing. I shot very poorly, so then, when I came to biathlon, the first thing I had to do was run a large number of penalty loops for poor shooting.

– Why then did you go to biathlon and not stay in skiing?

Ole: For several reasons. One of them is my older brother, who was involved in biathlon, thanks to him I also fell in love with this sport. My brother is four years older than me, he participated in the youth world championships and was even one of the seven leading biathletes of his age. Ahead of him, that is, from 1st to 6th places, are representatives of only two countries - Russia and Germany. I asked him to find out why the Russians and Germans can achieve such success. I wanted to learn this too and win against them. In the end, I succeeded.

– Have you dreamed of becoming a champion since childhood?

Ole: Yes, as a child I wanted to become a world champion or an Olympic champion. I was 12 years old when I set this goal for myself, I came up with a plan, and I began to work on it. I understood that for this I needed to be smarter and better, and the plan had to be much more reliable than others. Others are also trying to achieve this goal. To be honest, I had some distractions at the time. For example, I know that in Russia they can drink alcohol, and here they also actively drink it. When I was 12 years old, I tried it and got very drunk, and the next morning I realized that I couldn’t go to training. But this does not correspond to the goal that I set for myself - to become an Olympic champion. From then on, when friends invited me to parties, I came, but did not use. My refusal to drink alcohol lasted for many years - I still don’t drink it.

– So what did you learn about the Russians and Germans?

Ole: My brother gave me a simple answer: they simply train more and better. In Germany and Russia there were sports schools, where children from the age of 12 began to work professionally, not even to train. In Norway, this approach began only at the age of 16–17. In general, the volume of training here in Norway, in Russia, and in Germany was approximately the same, but in Russia and Germany a specialized emphasis on biathlon was made very early. Then I made a choice for myself that I wanted to train the same way as the Russians and Germans. To begin with, I started training before school - I did my first workout before eight in the morning. True, a week later my mother received a call from school complaining that her son was falling asleep in class. This ended my morning training epic. Then I just found out how much and when the Germans, Russians and Norwegians train. The Germans train five days a week, two sessions a day. I had one workout on weekdays and two more on weekends, that is, a total of nine. It turns out that the difference was in one training session. I realized that I needed to make up for this, and switched to a new schedule - without alcohol. So the recipe is simple: I was completely focused on my goal and completely gave up alcohol.

– Continuing the topic about motivation. You both set a goal for yourself as children - and eventually achieved it. But now you have become a world champion, here is your Olympic gold. How can I continue to force myself to work? You have won everything you can, you are head and shoulders above all your rivals. How to force yourself to go to training every day and with what attitude do you go into the race?

Ole: I've always been motivated. I know that for many people the following question arises: “I became the world champion, won the Olympic Games, and now what?” And I always wanted to be even better at the very moment when I became the best. For example, after winning the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, on the plane I was already thinking about my training plan for the next four-year cycle. I was bored of just winning – that’s all, it wasn’t enough. The most difficult and probably the most terrible thing is to win for the first time. But once you win the first time, you want to win more, find new ways to win. Victory after victory is like a drug that is very difficult to give up. But on this path you always want to go further. At least I wanted to.

Daria: For me, the path to achieving a goal is the most vivid sensation that gives the most pleasure. Of course, it is not only the awareness of yourself as a champion that makes you stay in sports, but it is these daily sensations, daily victories over yourself, over your weaknesses, over temptations that make sport so attractive. Great love for what you do also makes you move forward, grow and improve. As Ole has already correctly noted, it is probably impossible to achieve success in any business without love, and if you really love your business, sooner or later success will come to you. You ask how to stay motivated when you already understand that you are at the very top and there is no one better than you. It is important to avoid such thoughts. Those athletes who admit such a thought put themselves on a pedestal and cut off all further paths for development. As soon as you stop and think: “everyone else can’t compare with me,” progress turns in the other direction. I never had such thoughts in my head. I have always understood that the athletes who compete with me at a distance can at any moment do a better job somewhere than I can.

Photo gallery

– Athletes have to give up a lot of temptations. What was the biggest temptation you refused while you were an athlete? And which one do you allow yourself now?

Daria: In fact, refusing temptations can be more of a challenge in your younger years, and then it just becomes a habit. I really like to dance, loud music, good parties and dancing. And just like Ole, I am absolutely indifferent to alcohol.

– Does Ole dance?

Ole: I'm learning!

Daria: When you are in the midst of the training process, you simply cannot afford to go to a disco, not get enough sleep and then fail the next training session. It already becomes automatic, and you just accept it as it is. Biathletes have a rest period in April, so then you can afford to dance longer. And in my youth, of course, there were discos even in the midst of preparation, but you still have no right to miss a workout or conduct it poorly.

Ole: I can’t say that I gave up anything. There was not enough communication with family. When I started my career, I spent about 200 days a year training, then up to 300 days. From the age of 16, I saw little of my family, because I set myself a high goal, and spent almost no time at home.

Sports and money

– We are a business newspaper and cannot help but ask about money. When did the sport begin to bring in so much money that it began to justify the costs?

Ole: I have been working independently in sports since I was 16 years old. I come from a family of farmers, so we had enough money to live, but not enough to play professional sports. In Norway you can do biathlon if you go to a private school or section - you have to pay for it. Therefore, around the age of 14, I started looking for and finding sponsors. In Norway, in general, the situation with financing the start of children’s and youth’s careers in sports looks quite abnormal. You can play sports if you have a sponsor, if your parents have enough money for their child to play sports, or you can take out a loan. Many of my friends who studied with me at the sports gymnasium from 16 to 19 years old came out with loans of 40,000–50,000 euros that had to be repaid.

– Do you remember your first sponsor?

Ole: It was a furniture store from the village where I lived. They gave me 1000 euros – that was a lot of money back then! From the age of 15, I could fully compensate for all my expenses for playing professional sports. Here in Norway, even successful athletes who are part of the national team cannot afford to live, receiving wages only from the biathlon federation: it is about 10,000 euros per year, and since our country is very expensive, this is just a trifle. There are two options left: win competitions [receiving prize money] and find sponsors.

I negotiated 95% of my sponsorship contracts myself. Many people believe that if you become an Olympic champion or world champion, then you will definitely receive a good bonus from your state. In Norway it's zero euros per win. And for us this is a normal situation, we are used to it. The government spends money on sports centers where you can exercise. When I became an Olympic champion for the first time - it was still in Nagano - I thought that now I would be rich. But the money was enough for two years.

Daria: When I started playing sports, I didn’t think about any finances or earnings at all. For me it was sacred, something that I love with all my heart, where I run to train with sparkling eyes, where I want to achieve my maximum - a great incredible pleasure. I understood that I needed this for my soul, but in order to earn money in the future, I need to study well and have a profession that will allow me to realize myself in other directions in the future. I grew up in a family of architects, I heard conversations about architecture every day, but from childhood I told my parents that I would never be an architect.

– What about the costs of equipment, equipment, travel, etc.?

Daria: I started playing sports in Siberia, in the small town of Nyagan in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. There I studied in the sports section and sports school, and as the children achieve results, the sports section allocates equipment, skis, boots, etc. Naturally, this is not top-level equipment, but the one that you deserve at the moment. In Nyagan, they gradually began to support me financially as my results grew. I didn’t have any scholarship, salary or anything like that, but when we returned from the European Youth Olympic Festival and I brought a silver medal to Nyagan, I also received a bonus of 1000 euros. With this amount came the understanding that sports can bring in money, but this was never my primary goal. In the first place was the inner desire to overcome, achieve, and grow as an athlete. But, by the way, at every children's competition - and they took place almost every weekend in winter in Nyagan - the prize was once gifts, and once money, 100 rubles. for first place.

– What year was this?

– Why doesn’t biathlon attract as many wealthy sponsors as football or even volleyball, Formula 1, although this is a very dynamic, emotional sport?

Ole: Another reason is that it is a winter sport and, unfortunately, both the number of athletes who can participate in biathlon and the audience who can understand and enjoy this sport are limited. Biathlon, like cross-country skiing, is an Olympic discipline and, accordingly, is not a professional sport, unlike auto or motorcycle racing.

The International Biathlon Union (IBU) owns all rights to our sport. The IBU is really developing our sport, I see their success. The union's main income comes from the sale of television rights, and here I see great prospects and the potential to attract larger sponsors. Biathlon, in my opinion, is very attractive for television: it is much easier for the audience to understand, the race lasts from 15 to 50 minutes, everything happens very dynamically, there are many bright moments. Interesting and simple to watch.

Career continuation

– When you announced your retirement, there was talk that you could head the IBU.

Ole: There were such conversations, and there were proposals to put forward my candidacy, but I decided that for me this was too short a time after the end of my sports career, I was not ready to switch so quickly to a leadership position in the IBU, and I just wanted to spend more time with my family.

– Daria, you have your own clothing line. Is this a job or a hobby? And does your couple have any other businesses?

Daria: For now, this is still more of a hobby than an income. I am interested in creative development and the way of thinking, and I would like to develop in this direction, but now I devote all my time to the main direction of my work. As you probably know, we are currently collaborating with the Chinese national biathlon team.

– Is this sportswear?

Daria: Sports, but more for active recreation. There are also ski overalls, but I’m not ready to equip national teams yet. Now there is a slight pause in the development of this direction, but I do not close these doors for myself. In addition, this is also interesting to Ole, so perhaps in the future we will develop something very interesting together.

Ole: After finishing my career, I had many different thoughts about what direction to move next. But when we accepted the offer from China (Bjoerndalen became the head coach of the Chinese biathlon team in September, Domracheva is preparing the women’s team - Vedomosti), all our other concerns were put aside for later. Now the project in China takes up almost 100% of our time and attention and there is simply no room for anything else.

– Did you easily agree to the proposal of the National Olympic Committee of China?

Ole: This work is very interesting for us. We have the opportunity to work together, now I don't have to miss my family. Moreover, as athletes we can again focus on achieving a specific goal. If I do something, I give it my all, 100%. Now we spend about two to three months a year in China. But then a lot depends on whether training centers will be created in China and what quality they will be. If their quality is insufficient, we will continue to organize training camps in Europe.

– Are there any talented biathletes in China?

Ole: Of course there is. But, of course, the amount of work is enormous and much remains to be done to achieve serious results. Expanding geography, by the way, is one of the obvious directions for the development of biathlon. China, in my opinion, can be very interesting for the global development of biathlon.

– For a person who is not too immersed in the topic of winter sports, today’s actions of China look fantastic: now it’s 2019, they have the Olympics in 2022. Is it really possible to create a team of Olympic medal level in three years in any country?

Ole: The Olympic Games will be in two and a half years, and winning is probably not yet possible. Although, before we agreed to work under this program in China, we came there and looked at what kind of athletes there were, how promising and talented they were. I see that this is still very far from medals, but everything can become possible. In order to win a medal, you need to work very hard and well: athletes need to not only overcome themselves, but overcome themselves several times. In China, serious efforts are being made to achieve the goals. They have good discipline. But so far they lack experience in winter sports. That's why they turn to us and other specialists. China has a good culture that helps them achieve serious results. It will be difficult to improve the situation, but if we work on it every day, the impossible will eventually become possible. You need to understand that there is no magic. Any result comes only when you train hard and work at it.

How to eradicate doping

– What is your opinion about the purity of biathlon and the responsibility of the athlete or the state for doping?

Daria: In my opinion, it is impossible to force any athlete to dope without his personal consent...

– ...but while a person is small, he is very dependent on the coach!

Daria: How can we even talk about doping when the person is small? The most important thing is to eradicate such an idea in the minds of those coaches who raise young guys, and those who pass on their experience to young specialists. Unfortunately, I have also heard more than once that it is impossible to achieve success in sports without the use of some prohibited drugs. You know, such words make you really very unpleasant, because you know that this is possible, you know from your own experience. It is possible to achieve great success with intense training, great desire, great faith that it is possible, and patience. But, unfortunately, there is probably no absolutely fair game in any area of ​​human activity. Of course, everyone must be responsible for themselves. If there is a system around you that is turned in such a way that if you refuse to use some drug that will make you a champion, and 10 other athletes agree and you will simply find yourself overboard, this is one scenario. But if you are a real team together and really all believe in achieving the goal in an honest way, it seems to me that there is a chance to say “no” to this system. In my opinion, personal responsibility is the main thing.

Of course, an athlete can find himself in any situation; it probably happens when something happens by chance. But for the most part, of course, athletes are aware. If you receive any injection, tablet, powder - whatever - you should know what is in it. It seems to me that not a single doctor, not a single trainer, not a single specialist can inject you or put something in your mouth without your knowledge. Deception is again another possible option, and here we are already talking about the professionalism of people working in a team, about trust in them. Of course, they can add more and more, but here every professional athlete and team personnel must be on alert, watch their sports drink tank, and not accept edible gifts from strangers, or at least not eat them.

– If you are a pure athlete, how many times a year, a month, a day do you receive some kind of injection? Is this an extraordinary situation or an everyday one?

– Daria: The fact of the matter is that this is an absolutely extraordinary situation. To achieve results with a competent training program, there is absolutely no need to use any injections - it is enough to maintain the level of vitamins in the body and all important microelements, for example, B vitamins, magnesium - substances that are very important in sports, it is important to replenish their reserves, because Athletes naturally endure loads that are many times greater than people who do not engage in sports, and accordingly, they consume these and other substances faster. A nutritious and varied diet, isotonic drinks during training and, most importantly, the correct construction of a training plan with high-quality recovery in the form of rest and massage - that’s the main thing. Yes, and also high-quality biochemical control, which will help avoid overstraining the body.

Ole: I believe that biathlon is now the cleanest in terms of doping in its entire history. I started my career in 1993, and now, in my opinion, biathlon has cleaned up a lot. The situation has changed a lot over the past 20 years. Athletes have become much smarter and, with the help of the Internet, know perfectly well what risks they face from using this or that drug, and they know 20 times more than 20 years ago. I believe that athletes are truly 100% responsible for what they do. Yes, I understand that it is very difficult to say “no” when there is a lot of pressure on you from the coach, the federation, the government. But I don’t think that China, where the Olympics will be held in 2.5 years, wants to be accused later that their medals were achieved in a less than clean way. They don't want to lose face at their home Olympics.

I had the opportunity to compete with those athletes who were doped. And yes, on the ski track I can be slower than them not even by 10-15 seconds, but by a minute or two, but here you need to be really smarter and better. And understand that I have to work three times harder or better than someone who takes drugs, but I will achieve these results. And those athletes who choose this conditionally simpler path, in my opinion, are simply lazy. And eventually they will be caught, and perhaps they will have serious problems after their careers end. I think it's a very unpleasant feeling when you are deprived of medals. But in biathlon we have shooting, and you can shoot well only when you have trained well for it, and not when you have taken some kind of drug. In cross-country skiing, on the one hand, there is physical strength and lung capacity, and on the other, skiing technique, which is also practiced in training. Due to this you can win.

– There is a skier who finished his skiing career, became a racing driver and European Championship medalist, – Gunde Svan. You retired last year. Would you like to get into auto racing now?

Ole: If I had enough time, I would love to go to the race track, although I would take a few training sessions first. For now, our lives are quite active, and there is simply not enough time for this. But when I was young, as a child, Gunde Svan was my idol - I even have his autograph in my old passport. There are only two autographs - his and Niki Lauda's.

– Is it true that you have an impressive collection of cars?

Ole: I have a BMW, but most of all I drove and drive a Porsche. In Norway, I drove a Porsche for 10 years, if not more. I owned a 911 and I can admit that one of my biggest mistakes was selling it. Now I have a Cayenne, I also have several sports Porsches. I would love to collect cars, especially if I could find a good one. But it's quite difficult.

Daria: The sports Porsche that Ole mentioned was his gift to himself on the day he retired. For all the hard work done on the trails over the years.

Ole: When I finished my career, I had more time to drive and I was finally able to fulfill my dream of owning a sports car.

“Well, they finally got married,” Domracheva’s fans exhaled when they saw a photo of Ole Einar and Daria in wedding dresses.

Simultaneously, on the night of July 17, he and she posted a wedding photo on their Instagram pages with the same caption: “What a beautiful day!” Very restrained, but even these couple of words, given the secrecy of both, are like a feat for Bjoerndalen and Domracheva.

The king and queen, multiple Olympic champions, hid their romance for several years, which was an open secret.

And this year they gave up, telling us that they would have a child in October, and now they announced the wedding.

True, so far there is no word about how they celebrated. One can only guess that in Norway, because the author of the wedding photo is a famous Norwegian photographer.

You look at this photo and remember how they joked about their marriage.

“I want to thank the person who came up with such a joke on April 1st. My family and I had a good laugh. But many believed.” This is how Domracheva responded to a message two years ago that she had married Bjoerndalen. But they started joking for a reason. They had already been seen together more than once, and the Italian press reported at the beginning of 2013 that Daria was the reason for the Norwegian’s separation from his Italian wife Natalie Santer.

The feelings appeared, of course, much earlier. “I remember how he came up to me at the Games in Vancouver to congratulate me on my bronze medal,” Daria told reporters. - He himself won silver that day in the individual race, sharing it with our Sergei Novikov. I was shocked then. Bjoerndalen himself, wow!”

What did Bjoerndalen think when he saw Domracheva? “Wow”, “Wow” or something like that? But he didn't mind letting the friendship "develop a little bit." This is how a Norwegian once expressed himself about his relationship with a Belarusian woman.

Why Daria Domracheva still did not dare to talk about her close relationship with Ole Einar, one can only guess. It’s funny to read her comment now: “The only official information about my personal life will be the message about my marriage.” Still, the first official information came not about marriage, but about pregnancy, in April of this year.

In the summer of 2015, Ole Einar honored Minsk with his presence and even visited Daria in Raubichi. We captured their visit, but the stars did not talk to us. Moreover, Daria was angry that we discovered them and in response took a photograph of our photojournalist, which he was flattered by. In April 2015, at the “Race of Champions” in Tyumen, Bjoerndalen hugged her so much that it became clear to everyone: friendship had grown into love.

In October 2015, Soviet Sport journalist Dmitry Egorov reported that Domracheva was pregnant.

“I don’t have such information about my situation,” Daria told us then.

She appeared a few months later, in April:

30 years is a great age to have a child. I'll become a mother in the fall! This event is planned and very welcome,” Daria wrote on her website.

And Ole Einar became a frequent guest in Minsk. Now this is his home. In every sense of the word. He and Daria together control the construction of their country house, which is located near Minsk. The layout is by the Domrachev family, they are architects.

And if Domracheva does not discuss her personal life with the press, then Bjoerndalen is very frank. For example, he happily told the Norwegian press that:

Construction is going great. Daria has been building this house for many years. This big project, which I think will be completed within the next year... I think it will be great to spend a lot of time in Minsk. It's a beautiful city, we feel good there

It is absolutely certain that our child will speak two or even three languages. You need to know several languages, this is useful... I don’t speak that much Russian, I only understand it a little. I think I will teach it together with my child.

I hope I’ll become a good father... I’m not worried about what kind of mother Daria will be. It will be wonderful.

The timing of the pre-season altitude training coincides with Daria’s birth, where I will be present. In fact, this is something much more important than biathlon and altitude training... But I recognize that it will be a special combination - having a small child and playing sports at the highest level.

The next chapter of the exciting novel will be the birth of Daria. If in Norway they still can’t get an answer to the question of what citizenship the child will have, then in Belarus fans are arguing about where she will give birth.

We have no doubt that royal conditions will be created for Domracheva in Minsk. What can I say, the whole country will give birth with her! And this is not just guesswork. In April 2014, Daria, together with Alexander Lukashenko, worked on the construction of a new obstetrics and gynecology building of the 5th city clinical hospital as part of a republican cleanup.

Then the president told her:

Here, Dasha, we will give you a separate room. And give me twins.

The head physician of the hospital, Mikhail Nazarchuk, told Komsomolskaya Pravda that the ward is ready:

And what about preparing it - all our rooms are excellent, even if you go to bed now: beautiful, comfortable, single-occupancy.

What if I give birth with Bjoerndalen?

Then we’ll put it in a double room: upholstered furniture, it’s beautiful, it won’t be embarrassing. There are even two-room VIP rooms: in one room there is a mother and child, in the other the father can relax. The rooms are separated by a door. This room has a plasma TV, refrigerator, shower, and toilet. There is a separate medical staff assigned to this ward, with a separate midwife. So childbirth is only in our maternity hospital.

The couple is expecting a girl. And at the beginning of next year, Daria wants to return to the ski track.

Olympic champions build a house near Minsk, go to football games and ride a BELAZ.

We had a farewell party

More precisely, only Bjoerndalen had a farewell party. Daria announced her retirement from her career later. The event took place in Oslo. Ole invited current and retired athletes to the party. Those with whom the Norwegian competed throughout his career. However, many biathletes were unable to attend the important evening for Bjoerndalen. The Russian side at the event was represented by the “voice of biathlon” Dmitry Guberniev and Match TV correspondent Ilya Trifanov.

In addition to a delicious dinner, guests could enjoy live music, watch a performance by the Royal Norwegian Orchestra and an honor guard company, and study Bjoerndalen's awards, of which he had many. The main entertainment at the party was the dance of Ole and Daria. We have never seen biathletes in this role before.

They are building a house near Minsk

It was planned that the biathletes’ house in the village of Laporovichi, which is located 20 kilometers from Minsk, will be commissioned in 2016. However, construction was delayed. Now only finishing work remains. Athletes will be able to move in this fall.

The house, which locals nicknamed “the ship,” looks unusual in the Belarusian landscape. It is all the more surprising that Domracheva was involved in the design of the building. The mansion will have a gym, swimming pool and cinema. They say that the owners closely monitor the progress of construction and often come to Laporovichi.

Attended the World Cup final

There were many recognizable faces in the Luzhniki stands. Daria and Ole also came to Moscow for the final match. Domracheva had the flag of Belarus painted on her cheek, and Bjoerndalen had the flag of Norway. Although their national teams could not make it to the tournament. At the stadium, the couple took a selfie with actors Danila Kozlovsky (AKA Yuri Stoleshnikov) and Oleg Menshikov.

“It was nice to watch beautiful football. The World Championship is well organized. We are happy that we managed to get to the finals. Thank you, Moscow!” – Bjoerndalen said after the game to Match TV correspondent Yegor Kuznets.

Domracheva became an ambassador of the European Games, and Bjoerndalen became an honorary member of the FBN

When Ole Einar announced his retirement, many were sure that the Norwegian would not live long without biathlon. Anders Besseberg called Bjoerndalen his successor as head of the IBU, and in May the NRK publication reported that the eight-time Olympic champion would soon become the head coach of the Russian national team. According to a Norwegian media source, he was supposed to replace Rico Gross. But it seems that for now Bjoerndalen is more interested in his family than in finding a new job. The only biathlon post that Ole currently holds is an honorary member of the Norwegian Biathlon Federation. This appointment took place at the organization's gala in June.

Domracheva was offered the position of ambassador of the European Games, which will be held in Minsk next summer. Her task is to inform people about the competition, maintain and strengthen the tournament brand through her achievements and successes. The biathlete became the first person to be entrusted with the position of star ambassador of the Games.

Daria also runs her own clothing brand

The idea for the project came to Domracheva in the summer of 2016, when she was pregnant and could not participate in biathlon. But I missed my favorite sport. He became the inspiration for the first collection. According to Daria, the love of creativity was instilled in her by her architect parents.

Some clothes from Domracheva’s line have references to biathlon (five target eyes) and an image of the athlete. My husband also helps promote the brand.

Enjoying life in Belarus

The couple celebrated the start of their joint retirement with a day at sea. And then - to Belarus. The biathletes' vacation can be tracked using the hashtag #NorwegianInBelarus, which Daria came up with for her Instagram followers.

My acquaintance with Belarus began with a bathhouse.

The couple also attended the World Helicopter Championships. Daria, Ole, as well as Bjoerndalen’s younger brother and nephew flew over the outskirts of Minsk.

Last weekend, biathletes took a ride in the world's largest car - BELAZ. After the trip, they were awarded a certificate of successful completion of the initial mining dump truck driving course.

After Belarus, the couple will go to Norway. This trip also has its own hashtag - #BelarusianinNorway.

Photo: globallookpress.com, RIA Novosti/Viktor Tolochko

“Well, they finally got married,” Domracheva’s fans exhaled when they saw a photo of Ole Einar and Daria in wedding dresses.

Simultaneously, on the night of July 17, he and she posted a wedding photo on their Instagram pages with the same caption: “What a beautiful day!” Very restrained, but even these couple of words, given the secrecy of both, are like a feat for Bjoerndalen and Domracheva.

The king and queen, multiple Olympic champions, hid their romance for several years, which was an open secret.

And this year they gave up, telling us that they would have a child in October, and now they announced the wedding.

True, so far there is no word about how they celebrated. One can only guess that in Norway, because the author of the wedding photo is a famous Norwegian photographer.

You look at this photo and remember how they joked about their marriage.

“I want to thank the person who came up with such a joke on April 1st. My family and I had a good laugh. But many believed.” This is how Domracheva responded to a message two years ago that she had married Bjoerndalen. But they started joking for a reason. They had already been seen together more than once, and the Italian press reported at the beginning of 2013 that Daria was the reason for the Norwegian’s separation from his Italian wife Natalie Santer.

The feelings appeared, of course, much earlier. “I remember how he came up to me at the Games in Vancouver to congratulate me on my bronze medal,” Daria told reporters. - He himself won silver that day in the individual race, sharing it with our Sergei Novikov. I was shocked then. Bjoerndalen himself, wow!”

What did Bjoerndalen think when he saw Domracheva? “Wow”, “Wow” or something like that? But he didn't mind letting the friendship "develop a little bit." This is how a Norwegian once expressed himself about his relationship with a Belarusian woman.

Why Daria Domracheva still did not dare to talk about her close relationship with Ole Einar, one can only guess. It’s funny to read her comment now: “The only official information about my personal life will be the message about my marriage.” Still, the first official information came not about marriage, but about pregnancy, in April of this year.

In the summer of 2015, Ole Einar honored Minsk with his presence and even visited Daria in Raubichi. We captured their visit, but the stars did not talk to us. Moreover, Daria was angry that we discovered them and in response took a photograph of our photojournalist, which he was flattered by. In April 2015, at the “Race of Champions” in Tyumen, Bjoerndalen hugged her so much that it became clear to everyone: friendship had grown into love.

In October 2015, Soviet Sport journalist Dmitry Egorov reported that Domracheva was pregnant.

“I don’t have such information about my situation,” Daria told us then.

She appeared a few months later, in April:

30 years is a great age to have a child. I'll become a mother in the fall! This event is planned and very welcome,” Daria wrote on her website.

And Ole Einar became a frequent guest in Minsk. Now this is his home. In every sense of the word. He and Daria together control the construction of their country house, which is located near Minsk. The layout is by the Domrachev family, they are architects.

And if Domracheva does not discuss her personal life with the press, then Bjoerndalen is very frank. For example, he happily told the Norwegian press that:

Construction is going great. Daria has been building this house for many years. This big project, which I think will be completed within the next year... I think it will be great to spend a lot of time in Minsk. It's a beautiful city, we feel good there

It is absolutely certain that our child will speak two or even three languages. You need to know several languages, this is useful... I don’t speak that much Russian, I only understand it a little. I think I will teach it together with my child.

I hope I’ll become a good father... I’m not worried about what kind of mother Daria will be. It will be wonderful.

The timing of the pre-season altitude training coincides with Daria’s birth, where I will be present. In fact, this is something much more important than biathlon and altitude training... But I recognize that it will be a special combination - having a small child and playing sports at the highest level.

The next chapter of the exciting novel will be the birth of Daria. If in Norway they still can’t get an answer to the question of what citizenship the child will have, then in Belarus fans are arguing about where she will give birth.

We have no doubt that royal conditions will be created for Domracheva in Minsk. What can I say, the whole country will give birth with her! And this is not just guesswork. In April 2014, Daria, together with Alexander Lukashenko, worked on the construction of a new obstetrics and gynecology building of the 5th city clinical hospital as part of a republican cleanup.

Then the president told her:

Here, Dasha, we will give you a separate room. And give me twins.

The head physician of the hospital, Mikhail Nazarchuk, told Komsomolskaya Pravda that the ward is ready:

And what about preparing it - all our rooms are excellent, even if you go to bed now: beautiful, comfortable, single-occupancy.

What if I give birth with Bjoerndalen?

Then we’ll put it in a double room: upholstered furniture, it’s beautiful, it won’t be embarrassing. There are even two-room VIP rooms: in one room there is a mother and child, in the other the father can relax. The rooms are separated by a door. This room has a plasma TV, refrigerator, shower, and toilet. There is a separate medical staff assigned to this ward, with a separate midwife. So childbirth is only in our maternity hospital.

The couple is expecting a girl. And at the beginning of next year, Daria wants to return to the ski track.