RIP Charly Kahr
Charly Kahr, who was also called “Downhill Charly”, led numerous ÖSV athletes to countless medals at the Olympic Games and World Championships in the 70s and 80s. He was responsible for countless alpine successes of the Austrian Ski Association.
Karl “Charly” Kahr had to end his own racing career at the age of 25 due to an injury. In keeping with the times, it wasn't a torn cruciate ligament but a broken leg - the fifth in his racing career. But that was perhaps even a stroke of luck for Austrian skiing, because a skiing friend advised him to pursue a career as a coach, which the Ennstaler also did. In the same year he took over the Styrian Ski Youth, which he trained until 1963. From there he moved to the ÖSV and led the ÖSV youth team from 1963-67.
In 1967-70 Charly had a guest appearance in England - he moved there and coached the English women's team. Under his leadership, Gina Hawthorn became the first British woman to reach the alpine world class.
Toni Sailer, then ÖSV racing director, finally brought Charly Kahr back to the ÖSV as a downhill coach. His popularity soon increased significantly due to the great successes of the downhill skiers and thus began the era of “Downhill Charly” and his rise to becoming a coaching legend.
His era included countless successes of extremely well-known names: at the top are Annemarie Moser-Pröll and Franz Klemm. Olga Pall, Christl Haas, Peter Wirnsberger, Hans Enn, Anton Steiner, David Zwilling, Hansi Hinterseer, Josef Walcher, Werner Grissmann, Harti Weirather, Erwin Resch, Ernst Riedelsberger and Robert Zoller complete the long list of medal winners. In total, 7 Olympic medals and 13 World Cup medals were won during his coaching career in Austria.
In 1985, Kahr said goodbye to racing. “I was a coach with heart and soul, I always wanted the best for everyone, including myself as a coach, and I did everything I could to make people successful - and they ultimately did that by winning medals,” said Kahr at his 90th birthday party in 2022.
Afterwards, Charly Kahr and his wife Gerlinde ran the Planaistub'n in their hometown of Schladming and, together with their daughter Daniela, ran a ski rental shop. In Schladming he always tried to move the region forward. His commitment to the Schladming region in the bids for two ski world championships has set standards.
In its heyday, coach Charly Kahr led Austria's downhill team to countless successes.
With such a successful record of work, numerous honors were naturally inevitable, starting with the Great Golden Decoration of Honor of the State of Styria and the Silver Decoration of Honor of the Republic of Austria. With his achievements as a trainer and his commitment to skiing, Charly Kahr has made a major contribution to the popularity of skiing. For this he was awarded the “Snow Crystal of Skiing” by the Austrian Ski Association in 2017.
