Darya Domracheva

Domracheva won sprint and pursuit at the 2005 IBU Youth and Junior World Championships in Kontiolahti (Finland).

In 2007, she picked up two silver medals in sprint and pursuit at the Junior World Championships in Martell, Italy.

Later in the same season, on 13 March, she won her first World Cup race in the sprint in Kontiolahti, Finland.

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

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.

[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.

[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.

[18] 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 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.

Domracheva at the World Championships in Östersund 2008