Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway, the most accomplished male Winter Olympian in history, retired on Tuesday at age 44. He won eight Olympic biathlon gold medals and 20 world championships.
“My motivation is unstoppable, you know that, and I feel that it is just as much fun today,” an emotional Bjoerndalen told reporters at a news conference. “I would have liked to have had another year, but this is my last season.”
Bjoerndalen won a gold medal in 1998, swept all four events in Salt Lake City in 2002, and added one gold in 2010 and two in 2014. The eight gold medals tied his countryman, the cross country skier Bjorn Daehlie, who retired in 2001, for the most by a man in Winter Olympics history. But Bjoerndalen had four silvers and a bronze, and Daehlie just four silvers.
The cross country skier Marit Bjoergen of Norway won her eighth gold medal in 2018 and surpasses Bjoerndalen with four silvers and three bronzes.
Bjoerndalen was consistently dominant in biathlon, winning the overall World Cup title six times, most recently in 2009, before ceding the top spot to Martin Fourcade of France, who has won the last seven. He was twice named athlete of the year in Norway, in 2002 and 2014.
Bjoerndalen failed to qualify for the strong Norwegian team for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. He struggled on the World Cup circuit this season, although he won one event, as part of a Norwegian relay team in December. In his final event, a pursuit on March 24, he placed 32nd.
He said on Tuesday that heart murmurs this season had contributed to his decision. “It is not dangerous, but it is a discomfort,” he said, according to The Associated Press. The heart problems had been kept secret, even from teammates.
Bjoerndalen dealt with the physical demands of cross-country skiing and the mental stresses of shooting by being something of a lone wolf, training in secret away from the Norwegian team. After winning gold in the marathon 50-kilometer race in 1998, he collapsed and stayed down in exhaustion. “In Norway, there are a lot of children right now who would like to be me,” he said later. “They are competing and falling over.”
Bjoerndalen is married to Darya Domracheva of Belarus, a four-time Olympic biathlon gold medalist.