Willy Böckl

Wilhelm Richard Böckl (or Boeckl; 27 January 1893 – 22 April 1975) was an Austrian figure skater.

Career In his career, Böckl won the World Figure Skating Championships four times and captured two silver medals at the Winter Olympics, and he also won six European Championship titles.

The invention of the inside Axel jump (an Axel jump taking off from an inside edge rather than the normal outside edge) has been credited to Böckl and called the "Böckl jump".

After retiring from skating, Böckl moved to the United States and became a coach at the Skating Club of New York. He published a second book in 1940, How to Judge Figure Skating, which was primarily about judging compulsory figures.

In 1938, Böckl was one of thirteen prominent figure skating instructors from the United States and Canada, who met in Lake Placid, New York, for the purpose of forming an association of figure skating instructors. This distinguished group became known as the American Skaters Guild (the name was later changed to the Professional Skaters Guild of America in 1950, and again to the current name of the Professional Skaters Association). Willy became the first president of the guild; Willie Frick its first vice-president, and Walter Arian, second vice-president.

Böckl announced a retirement from coaching in 1944 to work as president of a tire company. He continued to be involved in skating and lead an ice show tour in Europe in 1953. After retiring, Boeckl moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Following the death of his wife, he returned to Kleganfurt, dying there on 22 April 1975, aged 82.