Benjamin Martin Karl (born October 16, 1985 in St. Pölten ) is an Austrian snowboarder . He was three times overall World Cup winner and World Cup winner in the parallel World Cup, 2004/05 he was junior world champion in parallel giant slalom. He became world champion in parallel slalom in Sungwoo (Korea) in 2009, in both parallel giant slalom and parallel slalom in La Molina (Spain) in 2011 and in parallel slalom in Rogla in 2021. At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Karl won the silver medal and in 2014 in Sochi the bronze medal in the parallel slalom. Karl won gold in the parallel giant slalom at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Benjamin Karl grew up on the Ötscher . In 1995, Karl decided to become a snowboarder. That same year, an accident in which he fractured three thoracic vertebrae nearly ended his career. After a month's bed rest, he began to train again and won the state cup in the same year. As a schoolboy, he attended the ski trade school in Schladming . There he found suitable training opportunities. In the 2004/05 season he won the Junior World Championships in parallel giant slalom, overall victory in the European Cup and the Austrian national championship title in parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom. In the 2007/08 season he won the overall snowboard World Cup ahead of Frenchman Mathieu Bozzetto . Karl has a younger brother Tobias. In the summer of 2008, Benjamin Karl was one of four candidates on the ORF show " Die Überfluger ".
On February 27, 2010, Benjamin Karl won the silver medal at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver , which was one of the reasons why he took part in the ORF show “ Das Match ” from April of the same year. At the Snowboard World Championships 2011 in La Molina, Spain, Benjamin Karl won gold in parallel giant slalom (PGS) and defended his world title in parallel slalom (PSL), thereby becoming double world champion. On January 25, 2013, Karl won his fourth world title. Benjamin Karl was the first snowboarder to successfully defend a world title in parallel giant slalom.
At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi , he won the bronze medal in parallel slalom. Benjamin Karl is also active in sports outside of winter sports and regularly takes part in mountain bike races to prepare. He has already stood at the start line three times (2011, 2012, 2014) in the extreme bike race Race Around Austria . In 2014 he achieved fourth place in the relay with Axel Naglich, Andreas Goldberger and Christoph Sumann . At the Snowboard World Championships in the Sierra Nevada on March 15 and 16, 2017, the then 31-year-old Benjamin Karl won silver in the parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom
in the final behind his roommate Andreas Prommegger .
At the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Benjamin Karl won gold on snowboard RTL.
personal
In August 2011, Benjamin Karl married his girlfriend Nina Grissmann, the daughter of former ski racer Werner Grissmann (* 1952) and is the father of two girls. The family lives in Lienz/ East Tyrol.
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Austria
World Cup
