Background

Ole Björndalen was born on January 27, 1974 in Drammen, Norway. The fourth of five children, he grew up on a farm in Simostranda.

Education

Björndalen followed his older brother Dag into competition in the biathlon, a demanding sport that combines high-speed cross-country skiing with rifle marksmanship. At the age of 16 Björndalen left home and entered a sports academy in Geilo to train in both cross-country and biathlon, though after a year he decided to concentrate on the latter.

Career

At the age of 19, Ole Björndalen won 3 out of 4 possible gold medals at the Junior Biathlon World Championships, which led to him being chosen to represent Norway in the 1994 Olympics. At those Games Björndalen's best finish was a 28th position in the sprint.

In his first season (1992-93) Ole finished 62nd, the season after, 30th and the season after that, fourth. In the 1995-96 season, he dropped down to ninth, but finished in the runner-up position in 1996-97. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Björndalen won the gold medal in the sprint and shared the silver medal with his brother and two other teammates in the 4×7.5-km relay. He wrapped up the season by capturing the World Cup overall title. He finished second overall in the World Cup three more times between 1998 and 2001 and third in the 2001-02 season.

When the World Cup tour staged its pre-Olympic "test" events in 2001, Björndalen swept all three races. Coming into the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, Björndalen was understated as usual, but he declared that his dream was to be the first person to medal in both biathlon and cross-country skiing events. In two World Cup 30-km, mass-start cross-country races earlier in the season, he had finished a very close second to World Cup leader Per Elofsson of Sweden; however, Björndalen was a disappointing sixth in the Olympic 30-km race. After an off day, he steamrollered to gold in all three biathlon individual races and, with the help of three teammates, received his final gold medal in the 4×7.5-km relay, thus becoming only the third competitor to win four gold medals at the same Winter Games.

At the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, Björndalen competed in five biathlon events and medaled in three, taking home two silver medals and a bronze. In February 2009, when he captured his 87th World Cup win, he surpassed Swedish alpine skier Ingemar Stenmark as the winningest skier in World Cup history. In addition to the silver medal in the 20-km individual event he captured at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Björndalen helped the Norwegian team win gold in the 4×7.5-km relay, bringing his career tally of Olympic medals to 11, a record for biathletes.

With his gold medal in 10 km sprint at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, he tied fellow Norwegian Björn Dæhlie for most Winter Olympic medals, with 12 in total, before overtaking Dæhlie by winning his second gold of the Games as part of the Norwegian mixed relay team.

In January 2018 Arne Botnan, the sporting director for Norwegian biathlon, announced that Björndalen would not be selected for the 2018 Winter Olympics, after he failed to achieve the qualifying standard of a top six finish in a World Cup race before the Norwegian Biathlon Association was due to nominate its Olympic squad on the 15th of that month. However, he did travel to the Games after being accredited as part of the Belorussian Olympic delegation as a coach, in order to support Darya Domracheva. On April 3, 2018, Björndalen announced his retirement from competition.

In September 2019, Björndalen and Domracheva were appointed as head coach and women's coach of the Chinese biathlon team.

Achievements

• Ole Einar Björndalen is the most successful and talented professional biathlete of all time. He is the most medaled Olympian in the history of the Winter Olympic Games, with 13 medals - 8 gold, 4 silver and one bronze. At World Championships Ole won 44 medals - 20 gold, 14 silver and 10 bronze, double that of any other biathlete. His outstanding career record is signed with 95 World Cup victories and he has won the Overall World Cup title six times.
  
  Björndalen has 20 discipline titles. He has 248 biathlon and 5 cross-country podiums. On November 18, 2006 Ole Einar Björndalen made history by becoming the first biathlete to win a FIS Cross-Country World Cup event - the 15 km freestyle in Gällivare. He was named the Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year in 2002 and 2014. Ole received the Egebergs Ærespris in 2002 for his remarkable accomplishments in both biathlon and cross-country skiing. He was also awarded with the Fearnleys Olympic honorary award in 2002.
  
  Besides, Ole Einar was nominated Laureus World Sportsman of the year in 2003. Ole was awarded the Fair Play Mecenante Award in Castiglion Fiorentino in Italy in 2009. In March 2011, Ole Einar, Michael Greis and Andrea Henkel were awarded the Holmenkollen Medal, becoming the first biathletes to receive the medal. In November 2014, Björndalen was awarded the best male athlete at the Olympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi by the Association des Comités Nationaux Olympiques.

Views

Quotations: "Nordic skiing is terribly boring. It cannot even compare with biathlon. In Nordic, even before the race, you can guess who will win, and you will have a very high chance of being right. With biathlon, everything can change in an instant. You can come into the range first and leave it close to last. Or the other way around."

"Sochi will definitely be an important point for me, but will it be time to say 'enough'? I'm not sure. We will see - maybe I will continue to race."

"I always forget that (I'm 40). I feel like I'm 20. My age is perfect, I am in super form. I prepared well for this and I am feeling strong."

"With the skis in particular, it seems like there is a small revolution almost every season. Skis are now a lot lighter, more stable and faster, and there are entirely different materials used for both bases and construction than when I first started racing."

"We have used the same weapon and the same mechanical setup during the entire time I've been active. Norwegian biathlete Eirik Kvalfoss would use a minute to shoot one series. These days, none of the best racers use more than 20 seconds."

Personality

Ole Björndalen is fluent in Norwegian, English, German and Russian.

Physical Characteristics: Ole Björndalen is 1.80 m (5' 10") tall and weighs 66 kg (146 lbs).

Interests

• cinema, opera

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Charls Darvin

• Sport & Clubs

  biathlon, football, volleyball

• Athletes

  Bjørn Dæhlie

• Music & Bands

  classical music

Connections

Björndalen married Nathalie Santer on May 27, 2006. On October 4, 2012, they filed for divorce. In April 2016 Björndalen confirmed that he was in a relationship with Darya Domracheva. On July 7, 2016, they married in Sjusjöen, Norway. Their daughter Xenia was born on October 1, 2016.

Father:

Hans Björndalen

(February 19, 1933 - September 19, 2012)

Mother:

Helga Björndalen

(April 14, 1933 - February 13, 2004)

Spouse:

Darya Domracheva

(born August 3, 1986)

Darya Domracheva is a retired Belarusian biathlete and coach who competed in the Biathlon World Cup from 2006 to 2018.

Brother:

Dag Björndalen

(born April 2, 1970)

Dag Björndalen is a former Norwegian biathlete. His biggest triumph as a biathlete is the silver medal he won in the relay in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano.

ex-spouse:

Nathalie Santer

(born March 28, 1972)

Nathalie Santer is a biathlete and cross-country skier.

Sister:

Audhild Hunstad

Sister:

Lisbeth Björndalen Bakken

Daughter:

Xenia Björndalen

(born October 1, 2016)

Friend:

Raphael Poirée

(born August 9, 1974)

Raphael Poirée is a retired French biathlete who was active from 1995 to 2007. With his 44 World Cup victories and several World Championship medals he ranks among the most successful biathletes ever.

Friend:

Lars Berger

(born 1 May 1979)

Lars Berger is a former Norwegian biathlete and cross-country skier.

Friend:

Emil Hegle Svendsen

(born July 12, 1985)

Emil Hegle Svendsen is a retired Norwegian biathlete. He has won eight medals at Winter Olympics (four gold) and five individual gold medals and seven relay gold medals at World Championships.

References

• Björndalen's Instagram
• Björndalen's Facebook