What does the everyday life of a professional athlete look like? How has triathlon developed over the last 40 years and why are humans the creatures with the greatest endurance? All these questions were answered by the 2007 triathlon world champion and Olympian Daniel Unger in his lecture entitled "High-performance sport in the context of triathlon" on January 27, 2024 in the lecture hall of the Institute of Sport and Sports Science at KIT.

Around 115 people sat tightly packed in the lecture hall and listened attentively to Daniel Unger as he went from soccer to his first triathlon in Mengen, where he finished 284th out of 290, to becoming world champion in the short-distance triathlon in 2007 and then an Olympian in 2008. While Daniel Unger talked about what it takes to become a professional triathlete, he repeatedly interspersed stories from his triathlon career, making the audience marvel, laugh and think. The training science content on the topics of supercompensation, load control and regeneration, which Daniel Unger explained in a clear and differentiated manner, was also particularly interesting.

The lecture was rounded off with a humorous kahoot quiz in which the participants not only learned that Erin Baker won the first women's triathlon world championship in Avignon, but also that bees have to fly up to 150,000 kilometers for one kilo of honey. In addition to these two questions, many other facts from the exciting world of triathlon were presented.

KIT University Sports would like to thank the Karlsruhe Lemmingen and the triathlon department, whose initiative made the presentation possible in the first place. We would also like to thank Daniel Unger for accepting the invitation to give a lecture at KIT and for providing us with an entertaining, informative and exciting evening.