Button, who died Thursday at age 95, personified figure skating for millions of Americans from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century, and into a portion of the 21st as well. The first American Olympic gold medalist in the sport back in 1948, then again in 1952, Button took the nation by the hand and escorted all of us into the often arcane and always dramatic world of jumps and spins, slips and falls, kissing and crying. Button anointed stars with an on-air sentence. A triple jump wasn’t good unless he said it was. When he shed a tear in the ABC Sports broadcast booth for an injured Randy Gardner and his partner, Tai Babilonia, as they withdrew from the pairs competition at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, fans wept with him.
Dick Button, an American figure skating icon who went on to a long career as a face of his sport on television, died Thursday. He was 95. Button's son, Edward, announced his death without giving a cause, per Barry Wilner of the AP. In 1948 in Davos, Switzerland, Button became the first American man in history to win men's singles gold at the World Figure Skating Championships. He then repeated that feat in each of the next four years, kicking off a run of 12 straight American men's singles world champions. The Englewood, N.J., native won Olympic men's singles gold medals in St. Moritz, Switzerland in '48 and Oslo in 1952. He even won a European Championship in Prague in '48 for good measure.
Dick Button was more than the most accomplished men’s figure skater in history. He was one of his sport’s greatest innovators and promoters. Button, winner of two Olympic gold medals and five consecutive world championships, died Thursday, said his son, Edward, who did not provide a cause. He was 95. As an entrepreneur and broadcaster, Button promoted skating and its athletes, transforming a niche sport into the showpiece of every Winter Olympics. “Dick was one of the most important figures in our sport,” Scott Hamilton said. “There wasn’t a skater after Dick who wasn’t helped by him in some way.”
