Sigi Engl

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Siegfried Engl Alpine skiing
nation AustriaAustria Austria United States
United StatesUnited States 
birthday June 9, 1911
place of birth Kitzbuhel ,  Austria-Hungary
job Ski instructor, ski school director
date of death March 19, 1982
Place of death Sun Valley ,  USA
Career
discipline Downhill , slalom , combination
society Kitzbühel Ski Club
End of career circa 1941
 

Siegfried "Sigi" Engl (* 9. June 1911 in Kitzbuehel , Austria-Hungary ; † 19th March 1982 in Sun Valley , Idaho ) was an Austrian - American ski racer and Skischulbetreiber. In 1935 he was the first to win all three disciplines at the Hahnenkamm Race and later emigrated to the USA, where he played a key role in the development of alpine skiing.

biography

Childhood and youth

Sigi Engl was born as the son of a stonemason in Kitzbühel. His mother ran a laundry in her own house. He taught himself to ski by observing military ski courses on the Hinterbräuleiten during the First World War and imitating their technique. When a Swiss ski delegation was invited by the state, the young man from Kitzbühel acted as a guide and found that he was way ahead of the guests in terms of skiing. He then decided to devote his life to skiing and not, as planned, to follow his father as a stonemason. His role models were Sepp Hellensteiner, Hannes Schneider and Stefan Kruckenhauser .

Athletic career

Engl achieved one of his first successes as a racer in 1931 when he finished second in the two-man combination at the Franz Reisch Memorial Run in his hometown. In the very first Hahnenkamm descent , he also came second behind his compatriot Ferdl Friedensbacher . In 1933 he celebrated several victories: together with three colleagues, he won the team city battle between Wengen , Garmisch and Kitzbühel. He also secured a downhill win on the Schneeberg and a slalom win at the Julius Moro Memorial Run in Kitzbühel. The highlight of the season for him were the Austrian championships , also taking place in Kitz , where, after finishing third in downhill and slalom, he won the gold medal ahead of Franz Zingerle . Sigi Engl celebrated his greatest career success in 1935 when he won downhill, slalom and thus also the combination in the third Hahnenkamm race. This feat was achieved by six other athletes, the last time Jean-Claude Killy in 1967.

After emigrating to the USA, he continued to ski and won the 1941 downhill run in the Harriman Cup .

Further career

In December 1936, Sigi Engl was hired as a ski instructor in Yosemite National Park and then stayed in the United States for the rest of his life. After looking for a place to build a ski area in the eastern mountain ranges of California , his Tyrolean compatriot Friedl Pfeifer brought him to Sun Valley , Idaho two years later , where he took a job as a ski instructor. While the resort served as a recreation station for the US Army during World War II , Engl was drafted and used as an interpreter for the 10th Mountain Division in northern Italy.

After the end of the war, he returned to Idaho and in 1952 took over the management of the Pfeifer ski school, which he held until 1972. During this period he brought 35 ski instructors from Austria, 15 of them from Kitzbühel alone, and made Sun Valley the largest ski school in the USA with over 150 instructors at times. The most prominent instructors were the successful ski racers Christian Pravda and Stein Eriksen . In his lessons, Engl relied on modern techniques such as short skis and televisions with replay functions. According to calculations by a journalist, the facility looked after around two million ski students during his time as director. After resigning, he handed over management to Rainer Kolb from Kitzbühel, but remained "Director of Skiing" himself. Sigi Engl is credited with an important role in the rise of Sun Valley to an international ski resort with a high celebrity factor. In 1967 he was instrumental in the kinship involved the village with his hometown Kitzbühel. In 1971 he was inducted into the US Ski Hall of Fame, and in 1975 he was honored by the Austrian President Rudolf Kirchschläger with the Golden Decoration of Honor of the Republic for his services to tourism .

In 1950 Sigi Engl married the wealthy Peggy Scott, main shareholder of IBM . The marriage had two children. A half-sister of his emigrated to Canada . After his death in 1982, his urn was buried in the Sun Valley ski area. A memorial in the village reminds of him and Sepp Fröhlich from Bad Ischl .

Successes (selection)

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Siegfried Engl back in Kitzbühel. In: Kitzbüheler Stadtanzeiger , edition of June 11, 1977, p. 4. Online , accessed on February 26, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Sigi Engl. Kitzbüheler Ski Club, accessed on February 26, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Sigi Engl - Hall of Fame Class of 1971. US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, accessed on February 26, 2020 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Engl, Sigi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Engl, Siegfried (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American ski racer and ski school operator
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Kitzbühel
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1982
Place of death Sun Valley, Idaho