What is #1 televised winter sport in Germany?

TRIVIA:  What is the #1 televised winter sport in Germany?  (Find the answer in the blog below.)

Aquatic biathlon.  Jocelin taking her shots.

 Biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross country skiing with shooting.  There are various formats including pursuit, sprint, relay, mixed relay and mass start.  In each format, athletes cross-country ski a certain distance then shoot a rifle at targets.  Athletes suffer penalties, either in the form of penalty laps or seconds added to their final times.  Basically, biathlons are phenomenal demonstrations of cardiovascular fitness, coordination, and aim.  In addition to being sharp-shooting aerobic beasts, the best biathletes have incredible capacities to focus - imagine shooting a gun at a tiny target in a snowstorm with your heartrate booming, your lungs pumping, and your legs on fire because you're in the middle of a cross-country skiing race with sharp turns and various inclines.  You're doing all of this in brightly colored spandex surrounded by fans waving flags, wearing Viking helmets, and ringing bells. 

Jess giving it her best.

In addition to developing focus, biathletes have to build resilience.  Because of the penalties for mixed shots, the lead can change very quickly and it's hard for athletes to know exactly where they stand in the race.  In other words, if you miss your first five rifle shots, you keep on trucking because the guy in front could miss his last five shots.  Being resilient also means staying in the moment...if you're thinking about the shots you missed from the first lap when you get to the second lap, you'll distract yourself from the current target and make matters worse.  Likewise, you can't celebrate accurate shooting until you've crossed the finish line - you have to keep your focus on the shot or turn or hill that's right in front of you in order to maximize the entire race.  Here are some clips to bring biathlon to life: 

Clip from 2010 Winter Olympics - Biathlon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h-RU2hzQxY

How They Train:  Biathlon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XIB7ydkplc&feature=related

JoJo and ChaCha having at it.

Erin and Michelle tearing it up.

After three days of endurance training, we shook up swim practice this morning by doing an aquatic biathlon.  Instead of skiing, the team swam - going down in one lane and back in another - before jumping out of the pool to throw tennis balls into trash cans.  (Not nearly as glamorous as rifles but I wasn't too comfortable with bringing 33 weapons into the Lombardi Rec Center this morning).  Anyone who missed the trash can, had to do penalty laps in the diving well before going back to the real course in the pool.  Our version of the race (which involved 12*50 yards butterfly/freestyle) took only about 15 minutes and Katelyn Lawson, a distance swimmer who's an ace with tennis balls and trashcans, stayed calm and strong to take first place.

Sophomores Kaelie and Luiza.

Seniors Misha and Mel.

After our biathlon, we switched to boxing - another sport combining cardiovascular fitness with extreme focus and resilience.  Chavisa Thaveesupsoonthorn might be the smallest girl on the team but she is Thai dynamite in boxing gloves.  Luiza Vieira and Michelle Forman are pretty scary, too.  For a practice comprised of only 2400 yards, I'd say we made considerable progress in heart and head strength.