Anfisa Reztsova – first Biathlon Champion

Anfisa Reztsova is a former Soviet and Russian biathlete and cross-country skier. You know, she is a two-time Olympic champion in biathlon, Olympic champion in skiing, three-time world champion in cross-country skiing, and two-time winner of the World Cup. By the way, she is the only woman in the world who became Olympic champion in two winter sports – country skiing and biathlon. Reztsova is called the Queen of the Biathlon. In 1987 she became Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.
Anfisa Romanova was born on December 16, 1964 in Vladimir region. The girl has three brothers. The city of Vladimir is known as a center of skiing. In 1984 she won the Junior World Championships.
The girl joined the national team at the 1985 World Ski Championships, held in Seefeld, and won her first gold medal.
In 1985 Anfisa married Leonid Reztsov, biathlete, who also was a member of the national team.
Two years later at the World Championships 1987 in Oberstdorf Anfisa won one gold and two silver medals.

Anfisa was considered as one of the main contenders for the gold at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, but it turned out that she was pregnant. The coaches didn’t include her pregnancy in their plans and they encouraged her to have an abortion. Later she repeatedly felt regret for it.
At the 1988 Olympic Games Reztsova won silver at the 20 km distance and gold in the relay.
Soon the Olympic athlete became pregnant again, and in January 1989 gave birth to a girl who was named Daria.
The young mother was not going to leave the sport and after a while she returned to the national team. But there had already appeared young and ambitious athletes. And Reztsova decided to become a biathlete. Despite the fact that she was a very bad shooter, she did her best.

In 1991, at the Union competitions Izhevsk Rifle at 15 km distance Reztsova missed 10 times, but she was managed to take the fifth place.
At Albertville in 1992, women were first allowed to take part in Olympic biathlon. To win Reztsova needed not to miss more than two times, but she missed three times. However, she became the first ever Olympic champion in biathlon.
So, Reztsova become triple Olympic champion and was… excluded from the biathlon team.
After that the athlete gave birth to her daughter Christina and… returned to skiing.
At the 1999 World Cup in Ramsau she became a winner in the relay. A year later, at the age of 36, Reztsova finished her career. In the interview to the Russian ski magazine Ski Sport she admitted using banned drugs during the 1998-1999 season.
After retiring from the sport Reztsova gave birth to two daughters. Elder daughters Daria Virolaynen and Christina, like their mother, became biathletes.
From 2011 to 2015 Anfisa was the head of the Federation of Biathlon of the Moscow region.
Source: federacia.ru/encyclopaedia/bomonde/reztsova/

Anfisa Reztsova – first Biathlon Champion