World Cup 6 is underway in Antholz, Italy.
The crowd goes wild for a German biathlete
With the exception of a handful of dedicated friends, I believe this is the first time in my life that anyone outside my immediate family has come to watch a race. There were spectators lining the course already on Tuesday to watch us train. Now that the races are underway, the stands, biergartens, and trailsides are packed.
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| View of the stadium with the Dolomites in the background |
I usually think of cross-country skiing as a quiet sport, but here the air is full of sounds: noisemakers and screaming fans everywhere, hilarious live Tyrollean accordion music amplified from a bandstand, announcers talking in German and Italian, and of course gun shots. There are several jumbo screens around the stadium, TV cameras out on the course on moving tracks and even one hanging from a huge crane, and people all dressed up in funny hats and facepaint waving banners and flags for their favorite teams and athletes. It's a big party. I already signed a bunch of autographs and posed for pictures...and I haven't even competed yet.
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| Hannah Dreissigacker (center) and Susan Dunklee sign autographs |
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