WOF 2010#05 English: Profile Benjamin Karl & Sigi Grabner

Winter sports: portraits of the favourites for Vancouver 2010

Olympic Profiles

Sigi Grabner: the old warhorse

Since 15 years, Sigi Grabner has been part of the world-class - ages in the still young sport of snowboarding. In the course of his long career, the 34-year old alpine racer has collected countless titles: he is a five-time European Champion of the ISF, he won the ISF Tour three times, he was "Lord of the Board" twice and "Vienna Soul Man" twice. He was the world champion of the FIS in 2003 and took the FIS overall world cup in 2004 and 2009. At the parallel giant slalom at the Olympic Winter Games Torino 2006, he took the bronze medal

Benjamin Karl: world champion after a six-week injury break

Benjamin Karl started his racing career in snowboarding when he was 11 years old. Thanks to his excellent results, he was allowed to attend the skiing & business school at Schladming, Styria, Austria. There, he fine-tuned his skills in parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom providing the basis for his upcoming success. In 2004, he successfully graduated from school. In the 2004/05 season, be became junior world champion, Austrian champion and overall winner in the Europa Cup. The highlight of his young career followed in 2008 when he won the Austrian championships again and also the overall world cup for the first time