Daria Domracheva announces finish of her career

Today, one of the main sport intrigues of the summer was resolved. A few hours ago Daria Domracheva announced her retirement. She made a choice in favor of her family. One of the best biathletes in the world after the birth of her daughter and return to the big sport had a terrific season. The culmination was the performance at the Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Daria Domracheva today gathered a press conference in Minsk to announce a difficult decision.

Nadezhda Skardino made the announcement three weeks earlier on a live broadcast of "Belarus 1".

Ole-Einar Bjoerndalen, eight-time Olympic champion: "Of course, Darya had the opportunity to pursue a career: she had a choice between a daughter and a sport, and if she chose a career and continued to win, then it would means less time to give to Ksenia, and we decided that the family is more important."

The career of Daria Domracheva is an amazing success story. She won the first Olympic medal at 23. The three golds of Sochi have driven the sports world crazy. Then, exhaustion of the body, mononucleosis and skipping a season. Then there was a fantastic return. Silver in the mass start of Pyeongchang and a relay gold.

Four Olympic gold medals, seven medals of world championships, 34 wins at the World Cup stages. This is thanks to her that the biathlon became the most rating sport on Belarusian television.

Domracheva had not yet decided what she would do next. Under the Belarusian laws, Daria before October 1, 2019 can be on maternity leave.

Without Domracheva and Skardino, the Belarusian biathlon will never be the same. It looks like you have to forget about medals for a while.