Kurt Engl, who lives in Dorfgastein, attended the ski school in Bad Gastein and the ski school in Stams . He starts for his hometown club WSV Dorfgastein . In the course of his career, the 1.80 m tall all-round athlete, who competed in all five alpine disciplines in his youth, increasingly specialized in technical competitions. In 1993 he won the slalom of the Whistler Cup, which was held for the first time . In 1996 Engl was accepted into the squad of the Austrian Ski Association . At the Junior World Championship in Megève in 1998 , he won the bronze medal in slalom and the silver medal in combination. At the subsequent Junior World Championships in 1999 in Pra-Loup - Le Sauze , he took second place in downhill and slalom behind Klaus Kröll and Massimiliano Blardone and won the combined ranking. In addition, from 1996 to 1999 he was Austrian youth champion six times in his respective age group. Due to the success in the youth field, he was allowed to start in three races in the World Cup in the 1999/2000 season , but never reached the goal. In the following season, the Dorfgasteiner competed again in the European Cup , but could not make a name for himself there either. His only success was in 2001, when he won the Austrian slalom championship ahead of the strong competitors Manfred Pranger and Kilian Albrecht .
His first World Cup points he got in 2003 with the 12th place in the slalom in Kitzbühel and the 18th place in Shigakogen . In the 2003/04 World Cup winter he achieved good results with two top 20 places and, as the best place ever, fifth place in the slalom in St. Anton am Arlberg . In the following year he achieved two top 10 places with eighth place in Flachau and seventh place in Wengen , after which he could no longer match these achievements. In 2005 he took part in the world championship in Bormio in the super combined, but failed in the first slalom run. In the 2005/06 season he posted a few starts in World Cup races, but mostly did not reach the goal. His only good placement he reached this winter with the 11th place in the Japanese Shigakōgen.
After some moderately successful years in the World Cup, the civilian athlete working as a police officer was dismissed from the ÖSV squad in May 2006. Since the 2006/07 season he has been training at his own expense in order to catch up with the world's best and to be able to return to the World Cup. In the 2006/07 season, Salzburg reached the points four times, but the following season remained unsuccessful and Engl ended his career in March 2008.
Joachim Glaser: Goldsmiths in the Snow. 100 years of the Salzburg State Ski Association. Böhlau, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2011, ISBN 978-3-205-78560-6 , pp. 127–128.
Austria
