Major honours
Austria is the country where the international style took root, and it led the sport through the interwar period. The Viennese school adopted Jackson Haines's balletic style, opening a path distinct from figure-centered English skating, and the International Skating Union itself was founded in 1892 on top of that tradition. Karl Schäfer won seven consecutive World Championships from 1930 to 1936 and two Olympic golds, achieving an Olympic double matched at the time only by figures such as Dick Button and Yuzuru Hanyu decades later. He was the last great champion excellent at both figures and free skating, and is also credited with inventing the one-foot Axel and refining spin positions. Austria has not produced another world champion since, but Vienna itself remains one of the sport's birthplaces, and the country has continued to field skaters at the European Championships.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
In the 1930s Karl Schäfer's main rivals were Germany's Christl Cranz and other male skaters active in the same period, with Austria and Germany frequently meeting on the European Championship stage.