Olga Pyleva is a Russian biathlete, a repeated winner of the World Cup, a 6-time world champion and the owner of two Olympic gold medals. After marriage, she took the name of her husband - Medvedtseva, but she won most of the victories, being Dusty.
Ski race
Olga Pyleva was born in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the small town of Borodino in July 1975. At 10, she began to seriously engage in sports, and at first exclusively in skiing. She graduated from the Academy of Physical Education in Omsk.
She won many medals in junior competitions, twice became the world champion in the relay, won one silver and two bronze medals in individual races at the junior world championships. Her mentor was the honored trainer of the USSR Alexander Grushin.
In 1996, a significant event took place in the life of Dust - the birth of the daughter of Daria. After leaving maternity leave, she decides to go to biathlon, a kind of sport related to skiing.
Biathlon career
In 2000, Olga Pyleva concentrated on biathlon starts. In a matter of months, she became one of the country's leading athletes.
In the 1999/2000 season, Olga Pyleva submitted to the biathlon pedestal.
Already in her third race, in the sprint in the German Ruhpolding, she won bronze. At the final stage in Russian Khanty-Mansiysk, she again performed very successfully for a debutant. First became the second in the sprint, then the third in the pursuit.
At the end of the season, she took 20th place. This result is especially significant, given that Olga Pyleva did not participate in the first half of the season.
Olympic success
In 2002, Pyleva became a member of the Russian national team at the Winter Olympic Games in American Salt Lake City. The first in the program was an individual race. Biathlete Olga Pyleva confidently walked the distance, claiming to win, the first three firing lines passed without errors, but she missed the last two, and as a result was left without medals, only in 4th place.
5 seconds at the finish, she lost to the Swedish Magdalena Forsberg, who also missed twice at the last frontier, the German Andrea Henkel became the winner.
The crown sprint race for Dusty again this time did not bring her medals. A miss on the rack and low speed along the course allowed to take only 8th place. The winner - another German Katie Wilhelm - Pyleva lost more than a minute.
But biathlete Olga Pyleva did not give up, whose biography radically changed on February 16, 2002. She became an Olympic champion. Although at first everything turned out not at all rosy, she went the 8th distance with a lag of more than a minute and missed at the first firing line.
However, in the future, unmistakable shooting and high speed allowed her to break into the lead. Pyleva left for the last round with Wilhelm. At around 9.2 kilometers, the Russian woman pulled ahead for 5 seconds, eventually managing to maintain this advantage. On this day, she got her first Olympic gold medal.
But the biathlete’s success did not end there, at the Olympics in the USA she also won bronze in the team relay. Pyleva fled in the first stage. She passed the baton to her partner Galina Kukleva in the rank of leader of the race. However, the Russians failed to keep first place. The nucleus completely failed the stand, going into two penalty laps, and passed the baton already on the 7th. Svetlana Ishmuratova and Albina Akhatova, who fled in the last stages, tried to correct the situation as they could. As a result, the team took bronze.
Olympics in Vancouver
The second gold Olympic medal biathlete Olga Pyleva, whose photo was adorned at the time of the covers of all newspapers, won at the games in Vancouver. True, they managed to shine only in the team race. In the relay.
Pyleva by that time already bore the name of Medvedtseva, she spoke at the third stage. Athletes at the stages in front of her for two spent only two free rounds.
Olga went her part of the distance unmistakably and at a good pace. Olga Zaitseva finished that day with triumph. France's runner-up team was 30 seconds behind. The bronze went to the German team.
One step away from the World Cup
In the 2003/2004 season, Pyleva was deservedly considered one of the leaders in world biathlon, confirming this status with each race.
That season, she managed to win 6 victories at the stages of the World Cup. Olga Pyleva won the individual race and the mass start once and twice in the sprint and pursuit. Photos of athletes with medals in their hands began to appear more and more often. That season, she really claimed to win the World Cup, but she failed to surpass the results of the Norwegian Liv Greta Poiret . Pyleva - the second.
The following season, her stellar performance continued. But this time, Pyleva became only the third in the overall standings, losing a little to the German Katie Wilhelm. One of its main rivals. The victory that season was won by Frenchwoman Sandrine Bailly.
Olga Pyleva completed her professional career in sports in 2010.
Personal life
Daughter Daria was with Pyleva from her first husband, whom she divorced in 2002. In combination, Evgeny Pylev was also her coach.
The second time she married the famous biathlete Valery Medvedtsev, Olympic champion in Calgary in 1988 in the relay.
At the moment, they have already had three children. This is the son of Arseny and daughters Julia and Olga. The latter was born at the end of 2014.