University of Vermont Athletics

Hilary Engisch 1980 - Skiing, Soccer

One of the most successful freestyle skiers in the history of the sport and 1990 UVM Hall of Fame inductee, Hilary Engisch was a four-time World Champion in moguls.

A brilliant athlete, Engisch was one of the best soccer players in UVM history scoring a school-record 35 goals in only three seasons. In 1979 she scored a school-record 21 goals and had six assists as the Catamounts finished in third place in the EIAW Championship. This was coming off the 1978 campaign when she scored nine goals and had three assists.

Named the U.S. Ski Association and American Express Athlete of the Year in 1984, Engisch actually began her quest of worldwide freestyle supremacy while an undergraduate at UVM. In 1978, she won her first World Cup event at Silver Star, British Columbia. That victory characterized her career, in which she dominated freestyle mogul skiing during the late 70's and early 80's. Engisch placed first in nearly every competition and amassed 35 World Cup victories within five years. She compiled such an astonishing record of successes that Skiing magazine called her "the greatest female mogul skier alive" and one who" routinely does things that most of us can only dream about."

In 1987, after nine years on the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team, Engisch retired from competitive skiing and has since served as a member of the Board of Directors of the U.S. Ski Association. In addition to going to school and skiing internationally, she helped found and was director of the Vermont Ski Training Foundation, a non-profit organization that provided top level ski coaching to children who otherwise would not have been able to afford such a program. She has also published a book, Skiing Freestyle, and starred in her first feature film, a comedy that she helped write and produce, entitled "It Don't Come Easy."

Engisch has been involved with the Special Olympics and The March of Dimes, and has been the Honorary Chairperson for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation skiathon.

Sports Illustrated selected Engisch as one of its Top 50 Vermont athletes of the 20th Century. The magazine's editors composed a list of the "Top 50 Athletes" in each state in its December 27, 1999 issue to commemorate the millennium. Engisch ranked 16th among the Top 50 Vermonters.