Willy Böckl

Austrian figure skater who won the World Figure Skating Championships four times and captured two silver medals at the Winter Olympics, and also won six European Championship titles. Beginning in 1922, he won the European championships six times, except for 1924, when he did not compete. Also in 1922, he came in third place at the World Championships. He came in second place at the 1923 and 1924 World Championships, and then between 1925 and 1928, won the next four Worlds. He earned two silver medals at the Olympics in 1924 and 1928, both behind Swedish skater Gillis Grafström. He defeated Grafström in the free skating portion at the 1924 Olympics.

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, he moved to the United States and became a coach at the Skating Club of New York. In 1937, he published an illustrated instructional book, Willy Boeckl on Figure Skating, which included descriptions of compulsory figures and free skating, but also included chapters on pair skating, ice dance, and carnival (ice show) skating. He published a second book in 1940, How to Judge Figure Skating, which was primarily about judging compulsory figures.

In 1938, Willy Boeckl (the spelling was changed sometime after he arrived in the United States) 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.