Karl Feix

Karl Feix
nation	Austria German Empire
birthday	January 12, 1919
place of birth	Kirchberg in Tyrol
date of death	August 21, 1963
Place of death	Caracas, Venezuela
Career
discipline	Downhill , slalom , giant slalom , combination
society	Kitzbühel Ski Club
End of career	1947

Karl Feix (born January 12, 1919 in Kirchberg in Tirol ; † August 21, 1963 in Caracas , Venezuela ) was an Austrian ski racer . He celebrated several victories and podium places in international races in the 1940s before he had to leave Austria in 1947 after a failed smuggling attempt and emigrated to South America.

biography

Feix grew up in Kitzbühel , completed an apprenticeship as a stonemason and was a member of the Kitzbühel Ski Club . After the annexation of Austria , he was accepted into the team of the German Ski Association in 1938. At the end of the 1930s he achieved his first international success. Feix achieved the first podium place in 1939 as third on a descent in St. Anton and celebrated its first victory in a descent in Bayrischzell in 1941 . In the years that followed, ski racing largely came to a standstill. After the end of the Second World War, Feix returned to Austria from French internment and imprisonment in Switzerland and started skiing again. In the first post-war winter 1945/1946 he was Tyrolean downhill champion and fourth in slalom and combination at the Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbühel. The following season 1946/1947 was his most successful: Feix won the Hahnenkamm descent on the Streif with the new course record of 3 minutes and 36.0 seconds , won the infamous downhill race on the Marmolada and won the combination in Seefeld with second place in the slalom and third place in the downhill.

After that winter, Feix, who earned money as a smuggler , had to flee Austria because of a failed smuggling attempt. He emigrated to Venezuela via Italy , where he initially worked as a woodworker before, after a serious injury, he made a living selling lighters with the likeness of Simón Bolívar . He was able to establish important connections and was employed by several European companies as a representative in South America. In 1961, he was also known as a skier in Venezuela when he won a race at Pico Espejo . Two years later, the successful businessman had a fatal accident when, after passing his pilot's exam, his flight suit, from which he had previously removed oil stains with gasoline, caught fire.

Successes in FIS races

• 4 wins:
  • Departure from Bayrischzell in 1941
  • Departure of the Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbühel in 1947
  • Combination in Seefeld 1947
  • Departure on the Marmolada in 1947
• 1 second and 2 third places

literature

• Hans Wirtenberger: Triumph and tragedy of a Kitzbühel athlete. In: Stadtgemeinde Kitzbühel (ed.): City of Kitzbühel. City administration bulletin, Volume 16 / No. 1, January 2012, pp. 5–7.
• Austrian Ski Association (Ed.): Austrian Ski Stars from A – Z. Ablinger & Garber, Hall in Tirol 2008, ISBN 978-3-9502285-7-1 , p. 74.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kitzbüheler Ski Club (ed.): Hahnenkamm: Chronicle of a Myth. 100 years of the Kitzbühel Ski Club. Wissen Media Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 2003, p. 96.