The upcoming biathlon season will not see Darya Domracheva on the track. Three-time Olympic champion and the winner of the Big Crystal Globe Trophy 2014/2015 decided to take a one year break.
Darya Domracheva: «After careful consideration I have decided to skip the 2015/2016 competition season to regain my strength. First time I thought about it was at the end of this World Cup season. However I didn’t listen to the signals my body had been giving me at that time, and that was my mistake. Having gone to the sea, it seemed that I was well-rested and ready for a new competition year. Moreover there was a plan: to skip some starts and thus make the competition season less intensive. I began the training process heart and hand and everything seemed to be going well.
And yet you can’t fool your body. So when I «caught» mononucleosis it immediately brought me back to the idea of taking some time off. Of course you can be stubborn about it and still go ahead with the season, but having consulted the experts I came to a conclusion that to miss the season would be the right thing to do. I'm absolutely sure it is for my own good, and will help me to regain my strength as well as to motivate me even more for the next year.
Everybody’s asking me about my immediate plans. At the moment, the most important thing for me is to have a complete recovery avoiding any emotional or physical overload. Following my doctors’ advice, I will turn on quiet mode for the next month, and then step by step, taking into account the medical test results and my well-being, I will start the basic training. It’s also worth mentioning that this winter I have a great opportunity to spend some time testing and selecting the skis for the next season, -in other words, I will follow my very own individual schedule. As I’m considering this gap year as my personal reboot I want to make it interesting and diverse as much as possible by means of adding new physical activities to the training process and collaborating with the experts from other sports.
For the moment I’m enjoying small things such as reading a book, catching up with my friends, going to the theatre or simply having a nice stroll around the city. When you train hard during the season you don’t have time for anything else; but now the situation has changed as there is no constant pressure or restrictions in my schedule. I also have a bunch of interesting projects in mind, and now it’s about time to get down to them. Needless to say that all of that will of course happen after I feel physically and emotionally recovered».