Farewell Dick Button: Olympic Great, Innovator, Promoter, and ‘Voice’ of Skating!
by Elizabeth A. Hanley
Double Olympic figure skating gold medallist Dick Button who has died at the age 95 in North Salem, New York, was not only a star of the sport but an innovator, promoter and renowned television commentator.
Born Richard Totten Button on 18 July 1929 in Englewood, New Jersey, he received his first pair of skates as a young boy, and attended a Lake Placid, N.Y. skating school where the renowned Swiss instructor, Gustave Lussi, tutored him throughout his competitive years.
Button first made an impact immediately after the second World War. At 16, he became the youngest U.S. men’s champion when the competition returned in 1946. At the Olympic Winter Games in St.Moritz two years later, he won gold when he performed the first double axel in competition. It startled the skating world, and he was the first American to win the men’s event. It should be recalled that all early Olympic figure skating competitions were held outdoors.
He secured a second Olympic gold at the 1952 Oslo Games, when he executed the first triple jump, a triple loop, all while a senior at Harvard. That cemented his dominance of international skating. He had won seven consecutive United States men’s titles (1946-52) and five straight world championships and become the first from a winter sport to receive the Sullivan Award as the outstanding amateur athlete in 1949. It was not won by another figure skater until Michelle Kwan was selected in 2001.
Button had also won the men’s European singles in 1948.Barbara Ann Scott of Canada won the women’s title for the second year in a row. Their victories prompted officials to bar non-Europeans from future events. After his fifth world title Dick relinquished his amateur status. He turned professional, finished his Harvard law degree in 1956. He said he had achieved everything he could have dreamed of. He enjoyed skating in the “Ice Capades” and “Holiday on Ice” shows and became a member of the Boston Skating club, remaining close to it for the rest of his life. Their trophy room is named in his honour.
Button never practised law, but flourished as a businessman and entrepreneur, promoting figure skating and skaters, and transformed a niche sport into the showpiece of every Olympic Winter Games. He soon began working as a television analyst and in 1960, covered the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, California for CBS. In time, his award-winning commentary revolutionised figure skating; he taught audiences how to watch skating, and worked with ABC until his final Winter Olympics assignment in 2010 at the Vancouver Games with NBC. He was known as “The Voice of Figure Skating” from 1960-2010.
He had founded a television production company “Candid Productions” which developed the coverage of professional skating and also devised “Superstars,” a “made for television” competition featuring stars from a number of sports.
Button’s death coincided with a night of tragedy for the sport of skating.On the night of Wednesday 29 January, an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter crashed into the Potomac River outside Washington, D.C. killing all 67 on board. Those who lost their lives including figure skaters, parents, and two former world champions who had been coaching at the Skating Club of Boston.
Button was married and divorced. His wife died in 2024. He is survived by his son and daughter, and his longtime partner, Dennis Grimaldi.
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