Prugger began snowboarding in 1985 and made his debut in the Snowboard World Cup on November 24, 1994 . In Zell am See , he immediately achieved seventh place and first World Cup points in the parallel slalom. On January 14, 1995 he reached the podium in a World Cup race for the first time in Les Deux Alpes with third place in the parallel slalom. In the parallel World Cup ranking he finished 11th at the end of the 1994/95 season. He finished 41st in the slalom class and 42nd in the giant slalom class. At the 1996 World Snowboard Championships in Lienz , Prugger was eighth in both the giant slalom and the parallel slalom. For the 1996/97 season he also started in snowboard cross but was initially only able to occupy rear positions. At the snowboard world championship in 1997 in his home town of Innichen he was world champion in giant slalom. In slalom he reached sixth place and in parallel slalom 29th place. After the world championship, Prugger was regularly among the top ten in the giant slalom in the World Cup. At the end of the season he finished eighth in the overall giant slalom ranking. For the 1997/98 season , Prugger also made it into the World Cup points for the first time in snowboard cross. He also scored regularly in the other disciplines, so that in the end he finished 11th in the overall World Cup ranking. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano , he won silver in the parallel giant slalom. After the games he was rarely able to build on earlier successes. At the Snowboard World Championship in Berchtesgaden in 1999 , he was disqualified in the giant slalom. In the parallel slalom he reached 16th place and in the parallel giant slalom 29th place. After another rather mediocre season, Prugger ended his active snowboarding career in 2000.