| Willy Böckl | |
| Birth Date: | 27 January 1893 |
| Death Place: | Austria |
Willy Böckl (27 January 1893 – 22 April 1975) was an Austrian figure skater. He 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".[1] [2]
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 focused on compulsory figures and free skating, but also included chapters on pair skating, ice dance, and carnival (ice show) skating.[3] He published a second book in 1940, How to Judge Figure Skating, which was primarily about judging compulsory figures.[4]
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.[5]
He announced a retirement from coaching in 1944 to work as president of a tire company.[6] Boeckl continued to be involved in skating and lead an ice show tour in Europe in 1953.[7] After retiring, Boeckl moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Following the death of his wife, he returned to Austria, where he died in 1975.
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