Holzknecht celebrated her first international successes at the Junior European Championships , in which she participated from 1989 to 1992. After a fifth place in 1989 in Bruck an der Großglocknerstrasse , she became European Junior Champion in 1990 in Železniki and in 1991 in Kandalakscha . In 1992 she achieved second place in Stange . From 1992 she also took part in championships in the general class and was successful there from the start. She won the silver medal at the 1992 World Championships in Bad Goisern and the bronze medal at the 1993 European Championships in Stein an der Enns . In the World Cup , which was held for the first time in the 1992/1993 season , Holzknecht was one of the best from the start. She won the second World Cup race in Rautavaara , achieved two third places at the end of the season and finished the first World Cup season in third place overall. In 1993 Holzknecht became Austrian champion in single-seater for the first time, which she had achieved four more times by 2000.
In the 1997/1998 season , Holzknecht achieved four victories in six races, with which she won the overall World Cup for the second time. For this achievement she was awarded the Silver Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria . In the 1998/1999 season, too , she won the overall standings with two wins and two second places, just five points ahead of Italian Sonja Steinacher . In the next winter Steinacher achieved four World Cup victories, which meant that Holzknecht, who won two races, was three times second and once third, i.e. finished on the podium in all six races of the season, relegating her to second place in the overall World Cup by 15 points. At the 1998 World Cup in Rautavaara , Holzknecht only finished fifth. At the 1999 European Championships in Szczyrk and the 2000 World Championships in Olang , she won two medals in second and third respectively.
On December 27, 2000, Elvira Holzknecht suffered an open ankle fracture in an elimination race in South Tyrol, which is why she was canceled for the entire 2000/2001 World Cup season. The next World Cup season began, still affected by her injury, with two seventh places. After that she was able to improve again with three placements in the top five; in the overall World Cup she was sixth. At the European Championships in 2002 in Frantschach-Sankt Gertraud , she finished seventh, as well as in her last major event, the World Championships in 2003 in Železniki. Holzknecht was unable to take part in the first World Cup race of the 2002/2003 season because she injured her hand with the runners of her toboggan. In the other five World Cup races that winter, she made it onto the podium three times, finishing fourth in the overall World Cup. Holzknecht ended her career after that winter.
Harald Steyrer, Herbert Wurzer, Egon Theiner: 50 years FIL 1957 - 2007. The history of the International Luge Federation in three volumes. Volume II, Egoth Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-902480-46-0 , pp. 285-397.
Austria
