In September 2019, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and his wife Daria Domracheva, who won a couple of dozen gold medals at the Olympic Games, decided to leave to work in China.
A little later, when we met at the first stage of the World Cup in Ostersund, Sweden, I asked the Norwegian what was decisive for him in making that decision.
“It was definitely not money,” Bjoerndalen replied.
"Rather, a challenge."
Then, of course, we did not know that a few more months would pass, the world would be covered by a pandemic, and the star coaching couple would find themselves with their team in absolute isolation from the “external” biathlon.
The head of the family got in touch first.
He warned: “Dasha will definitely join the conversation.
But later.
Now she is putting Xenia to bed. "
Bjoerndalen: "To put it simply, I'm so damn tired
...
"
- It looks like this is the longest training camp in your life?
- The longest and by far the most difficult.
It has been going on for five months and I don't think it will end before April.
- What was the most difficult for you and Daria in this forced isolation from the world?
- Isolation is just a given, albeit not very pleasant.
The hotel room in which we live is not so small, the total area is about 45 square meters, everything is quite comfortable, so as not to experience everyday inconveniences, but we can leave the hotel only for training.
- Does the team train twice a day?
- Three times.
The first lesson is held early in the morning and is fairly short.
But it is followed by two workouts already complete in all respects.
- Can you stay between trainings at the stadium without returning to the hotel?
- Not.
After all, I would like to dine and relax.
In this regard, everything is clear in the team: we worked it out - got into the cars, returned to the hotel, but this, in principle, is the usual mode of any sports team.
So every day.
Working in a pandemic, the security measures that are being taken in China, and the inability to participate in international tournaments create a certain specificity.
In the sense that we, coaches, have to rack our brains a lot to make our classes as diverse as possible.
This is important, especially since we have not so many arenas at our disposal that allow full-fledged training.
- By the way, are you vaccinated?
- All my athletes, coaches and technical staff have already received the first vaccination.
Me not.
- Why?
- I would like to have more complete information about how this or that vaccine works, and only then make a choice.
There is another reason as well.
The current work with the team takes too much of my energy.
Simply put, I’m tired as hell and I don’t think my immunity is high enough now to tolerate the vaccine without consequences.
And I cannot afford to drop out of the training process even for a few days.
Therefore, I decided that the situation allows you not to rush.
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Publication from Ole Einar Bjørndalen (@oleeinarbjorndalen)
Domracheva: "Who knew that the hotel would have to spend six months?"
- Athletes often say that their life is a solid groundhog day. This definition is now suitable for Chinese biathletes, probably the best way possible?
- Not only for biathletes.
For several months now we have been in the same hotel with teams from other winter sports - freestyle (ski acrobatics and halfpipe) and snowboarding (halfpipe, slopestyle, mogul).
Everyone is in absolutely the same conditions as our team.
Communicating with other coaches, we realized that the teams have the same problems.
The place where we live now is a large tourist complex, one building of which is now allocated for athletes.
The living conditions are quite suitable for us, there is even a small kitchen in the room, which sometimes allows us to cook dishes that are close to our taste.
- Do you manage to get over it without slipping into depression?
- Although we have been in one place for quite a long time and in rather limited conditions, we ourselves are surprised at how much a person can adapt.
We communicate with coaches from other teams, translate many painful moments into jokes, support each other, laugh at the situation in which we are.
The easiest way is to start getting annoyed about one reason or another, but think for yourself, what's the point?
This will not make it easier for anyone, and it will not change the general situation.
The athletes of our team have enough qualities to work on, where they can progress - this is what we focus on.
Yes, it's hard, but we're not complaining.
After all, we are in China with the whole family, and this makes it much easier.
Many specialists came to China, leaving their loved ones at home, so it is much more difficult for them.
- How is your standard training day organized?
- We wake up at about seven, do exercises with the guys, then have breakfast and go to the first training session.
It is usually carried out on the track and is complex if the wind conditions permit.
Then lunch and a short break to rest, followed by a second workout according to work plans.
In the evening, we conduct a video analysis of training with athletes.
- Does your daughter have someone to play with while you are busy?
- Every day we take Ksenia with us to training, there she has all the necessary attributes for winter fun: sledges, skis, snow shovels - there is something to do.
It is clear that now we cannot go out when we want to, but in this regard, we adapt to the realities that we have and are glad that Ksyusha has the opportunity to spend time in the fresh air every day.
Fortunately, we have a nanny with us in China, without whom we would hardly be able to cope with the organization of the training process and stay here.
- Doesn't your child speak Chinese yet?
- Ksenia has a lot of contacts with the guys and girls from the team.
He knows a few Chinese words and communicates with everyone more than actively.
Of course, he helps himself with gestures or English words, but as far as I can tell, everyone understands each other perfectly.
But this, of course, is not free speech.
- I know that you celebrated the Chinese New Year with the team. It was fun?
- Yes, this is an unusual experience.
Working with the Chinese team, we have already celebrated two Christmas and two New Years.
But the New Year according to the Eastern calendar was first celebrated right in China, so there were a lot of impressions.
If it is customary for us to put on the festive table as many of the most varied dishes as possible, here traditionally for the New Year they eat dumplings, which must first be prepared.
So our team made these dumplings all evening - a whole bunch with a variety of fillings.
I am very sorry that I did not calculate the total amount that I managed to cook.
It turned out to be just a mountain!
We also watched the Chinese "Blue Light" on TV.
It was curious.
It was decided not to celebrate this New Year in China on a regular scale, since 2020 turned out to be quite tragic for many families.
Therefore, there were no usual fireworks, noisy festivities, people first of all remembered those who left forever.
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Publication from Darya Domracheva (@dadofun)
Bjoerndalen: "In a week, seven races: five biathlon and two ski"
- How big is the team entrusted to you?
- Large enough, generally speaking.
We have five trainers from Europe, four masseurs, a doctor and two translators.
And 11 athletes.
I can say with confidence that very few European countries can boast of such a professional organization of the training process.
In any case, in Norway during the years that I trained myself, there was neither such professional management, nor such a comprehensive control over the athlete's condition, his workload, statistics, recovery.
There are not so many top-level biathletes in China, so everyone who is able to progress and show results is treated very carefully here in order to help a person fully develop and realize his own potential.
- It seems to me that at some stage of work it becomes quite difficult to progress without being able to compete.
- We are competing.
We arrange control races, and we try to do it in the same mode in which biathletes run at the World Cup stages.
Let's say we carry out three control starts, then we train for two or three weeks and again organize competitions in which the athletes can have up to five races in a row.
- In fact, this is a simulation of the main start of the season?
- Well, now, for example, we have a very difficult period in terms of training: athletes are preparing to run seven races in a week: five biathlon and two ski.
In a certain sense, we have an advantage: when there are no rigid terms for the competition, you can vary the training work as you want.
On the other hand, isolation from the world deprives athletes of the opportunity to compare themselves with the strongest.
And that would be very useful for us now.
Otherwise, it is extremely difficult to understand how great the progress we have made.
This moment, to be honest, strains me the most.
Well, except for the weather.
- What's wrong with the weather?
- The Chinese winter is hard enough for biathlon.
Although this is also just an additional challenge.
- I heard that the servicemen of the Chinese team in Pokljuka helped the Norwegian biathletes prepare skis, is that so?
- Everyone you are talking about did not come to Pokljuka from China - it would be simply impossible to do this under the current conditions.
We really cooperate with a number of Norwegian lubrication specialists, provide them with some financial assistance, so it would be fair to say that they are working with the Chinese national team - they help us prepare equipment.
In particular, all the skis of the Chinese national team for the next season are being rolled back and tested in Pokljuka.
At the same time, they help Norwegian athletes if the need arises.
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Publication from Ole Einar Bjørndalen (@oleeinarbjorndalen)
Domracheva: "The most difficult thing is to constantly adapt the program to changing conditions"
- Do your work plans coincide with those of your husband?
- The women's team is now working as intensively as the men's.
Training plans don't differ too much, the main difference is in the amount of work.
Not so long ago, we held a block of control races, in which all the athletes of the national team participated, now we are preparing for another one.
We watch the World Cup, of course.
We are sad that we are not in Pokljuka now.
- The main reason for this sadness is the inability to start at the international level?
- Yes of course.
Still, when throughout the winter athletes are cooking in the same porridge with the strongest biathletes in the world, there is an opportunity here and now to compare ourselves with the best and strive for their level.
All our guys naturally observe the competitions, celebrate interesting moments in shooting, in race tactics, in the technique of movement of the current world leaders - all this is very useful, it motivates, but cannot replace personal presence at the World Cup and rivalry at a distance.
Only personal struggle gives an understanding of your current level.
Long-term isolation from the whole world is not easy to bear.
I would generally call it one of the main negative factors in our current training.
That is why we put so much effort to keep the guys motivated and in a normal training mood.
We use all the opportunities available to us for this.
- What is the most difficult thing?
- If we look at the situation from the point of view of preparation for the Olympic Games, then the most difficult thing is to constantly rewrite training programs and work plans - to adjust them to working conditions, which change every now and then, due to one reason or another.
For example, the 40-degree frost that we had for two weeks, or the postponement of the scheduled competition dates due to the tightening of coronavirus security measures in some provinces.
No one complains about this, everyone understands perfectly the complexity of the situation in which not only China, but the whole world finds itself now, but the daily readiness to adjust the training program to certain conditions is really tiresome.
- What do you now know about your near future?
- At the end of the season, athletes will need a break and a maximum reboot to start the Olympic season with renewed vigor and new motivation, fully recovering both physically and mentally.
I hope we will be able to use this break to go home in the spring.
We have been here for so long that there seems to be very little to wait.
And I do not even want to think that such an opportunity may not be presented.
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Publication from Darya Domracheva (@dadofun)
Bjoerndalen: "There will always be those who make a lot of mistakes in Pokljuka"
- Considering the location of the current Biathlon World Cup, I would like to recall the events of 20 years ago. Then you did not perform very well at the pre-Olympic world forum in Pokljuka. And a year later they won
three individual gold medals in Salt Lake City and one more in the relay.
What went wrong in Slovenia, remember?
- At that time, my shooting was very bad.
Functionally, I was ready for that championship just as great as never before.
But shooting has really turned into a global problem.
This gave rise to rather strong uncertainty at the borders.
- I looked at the protocols of those competitions before our conversation: five misses in the sprint, six in the individual race, four in the mass start
...
- At the same time, mind you, I finished second in the mass start and, if not for the fall on the last lap, I would have won against Raphael Poiret.
In general, he simply did not cope with the pressure.
They expected victories from me, I myself expected them, I prepared for that world championship like a madman, but psychologically I was simply not ready for the burden that fell on me.
- Enough reasons to hate Pokljuka for the rest of your life, don't you think?
- Well, why?
I competed there many times and won a lot.
I still remember the old track, which was very different from the current one.
- Was it less difficult?
- More beautiful, I would say.
The circle was longer, capturing distant areas.
Plus - an amazing stadium, very good snow, a convenient shooting range.
After I managed to restore the shooting to the point where I stopped dwelling on it, many times I caught myself feeling that shooting in Pokljuka is very easy.
It is clear that there will always be people who make a lot of mistakes there, but I would call the shooting conditions there ideal.
- What exactly makes them that way? Windproof?
- And that too.
The shooting range in Pokljuka is located in the lowest part of the track, and it is always easier to go down: you have time to rest, restore your pulse, and accordingly, you do not pound so much at the ready.
- Which of the current World Championship races aroused your greatest interest?
- Men's pursuit.
It is clear that I am rooting primarily for Norway, but I was shocked by Emilien Jacquelin.
I enjoyed watching him compete immensely.
How long can your forced Chinese retreat last?
- I don't think we will be able to return to Europe before early May.
- Are you already making any plans for this period?
- Our whole team has a two-week vacation in the first half of April, but what will happen next is extremely difficult to plan.
In order to leave China and then return again, our athletes need a special permit, but how long it can take to get it, I just don't know.
I can't say that it doesn't bother me, but this is the reality.
- Then it remains to wish you good luck. Good luck and patience.
- Thank.
This is really what we need most now.
I can quite frankly admit: I have not gone through such an overcoming to any of my six Olympics as now, when I go to my first coaching Games.
Yes, I love challenges, I'm happy to have the opportunity I have now, but it's incredibly difficult!