{"id":651631,"date":"2025-01-31T04:25:49","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T01:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/dick-button-icon-of-olympic-figure-skating-dies-at-95\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T04:25:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T01:25:49","slug":"dick-button-icon-of-olympic-figure-skating-dies-at-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/dick-button-icon-of-olympic-figure-skating-dies-at-95\/","title":{"rendered":"#Dick Button, Icon of Olympic Figure Skating, Dies at 95"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tDick Button, the two-time Olympic champion who revolutionized figure skating by completing the first trip<\/a>le jump in competition, then spun TV ratings gold with his pithy, Emmy-winning commentary, died Thursday. He was 95.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tButton died in North Salem, New York, his daughter, actress Emily Button, told<\/a> The Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tArmed with an encyclopedic knowledge of his sport \u2014 as well as degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School \u2014 Button displayed a tart wit and passion that defined figure skating on network television for more than five decades, starting in 1960 on CBS with the Winter Olympics from what was then known as Squaw Valley, California.<\/p>\n

\n\tMoving to ABC in 1962 \u2014 where he would remain for the next 40-plus years \u2014 Button presided over a new age in media<\/a> and skating. With telegenic stars Peggy Fleming, Janet Lynn, Dorothy Hamill and Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner rising on the world stage during the 1960s and \u201970s, Button pushed for airtime and production values that made figure skating the lucrative centerpiece of the Winter Game<\/a>s.<\/p>\n

\n\tSchooling TV audiences on the nuances of judging, \u201cclassic lines,\u201d airy jumps and speed, Button also taught viewers (much to their delight) how to spot the awful. Flailing arms, bent legs, tasteless costumes and choppy music edits received his unapologetic ire.<\/p>\n

\n\tOf one particularly jarring musical selection, Button said, \u201cThere seems to have been a mix-up in the recording studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile he spent most of his career as an analyst at ABC, often alongside Jim McKay on the Saturday afternoon anthology series<\/a>\u00a0Wide World of Sports<\/em>, Button also worked for decades with Fleming and later with Terry Gannon at ABC and NBC.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe kept me on my toes,\u201d Gannon said in 2014. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys born without a filter between his brain and his mouth, which is what makes him a great analyst.\u201d Listen to some of his commentary here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tA reality TV visionary, Button created the long-running ABC kitsch competition\u00a0The Superstars<\/em>\u00a0in 1973, pitting athletes from disparate sports against one another in splashy decathlon-style meets.<\/p>\n

\n\tA 1976 spinoff,\u00a0Battle of the Network Stars<\/em>, rose to iconic status during its original 12-year run, with its competitions featuring actors such as Robert Conrad, Farrah Fawcett, Gabe Kaplan, Penny Marshall and Hal Linden hosted in self-mocking style by Howard Cosell. Several revivals over the years included one as recently as 2017.<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough his aptly named Candid Productions, Button expanded financial opportunities for skaters, creating the World Professional Figure Skating Championships and the Challenge of Champions as well as TV specials for stars such as Hamill, who at the height of her fame was one of the top-earning athletes in the world.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDick made the words \u2018lutz\u2019 and \u2018salchow\u2019 part of everyday vocabulary,\u201d said 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano, who helped Button promote his 2013 book\u00a0Push Dick\u2019s Button<\/em>, an insider\u2019s conversation about figure skating.<\/p>\n

\n\tRichard Totten Button was born on July 18, 1929, in Englewood, New Jersey. He became serious about skating at age 12, a bit late in the game. Yet within five years, he was the U.S. champion, a title he would win seven consecutive times.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1949, he received the Sullivan Award, which recognizes the top U.S. athlete in all of amateur sport.<\/p>\n

\n\tButton remains the only American skater to twice capture Olympic gold. At age 18 at the 1948 St. Moritz Games, he landed the first double axel (2 1\/2 revolutions) in competition to become the youngest male figure skater to ever win; in 1952 in Oslo, Norway<\/a>, he pulled off his historic triple loop (while wearing a stylish white mess jacket, to boot). He also invented the flying camel spin.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs noted in Mary Louise Adams\u2019 2011 book,\u00a0Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity, and the Limits of Sport<\/em>, \u201cButton ushered in a new athleticism in figure skating \u2026 His jumps were higher and longer, his spins faster than those of his competitors. He termed his app<\/a>roach to skating aggressive, exuberant and American.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom Davos to Paris, Button also won men\u2019s singles at the World Championships for five straight years (1948-52), a feat he completed while attending Harvard undergrad. He then retired from competition to take on a pro career, touring with the Ice Capades during campus vacations from his law studies.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was a member of the first class inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1976.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the broadcast booth, he could be as emotional as he was cutting. In 1996, as Rudy Galindo scored one of the greatest upsets in the sport\u2019s history, winning the U.S. title after years of wrenching setbacks, Button could barely contain his exuberance \u2014 or his tears.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen the Winter Games jumped to CBS in 1992 and then to NBC in 2002, Button remained with ABC, calling competitions through the aughts, even after a fluke fall on the ice at age 70 left him with a skull fracture, concussions and hearing loss.<\/p>\n

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Dick Button and Peggy Fleming covered the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics for ABC.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tABC\/Photofest<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThrough the decades, he remained skating\u2019s conscience<\/a>, openly criticizing a revamped judging system (forced after a scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake Games) that incentivized paint-by-numbers programs, eroding the sport\u2019s elan and television appeal.<\/p>\n

\n\tButton notably stayed out of the media frenzy surrounding Tonya Harding\u2019s 1994 attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan. \u201cI found it disgusting,\u201d he said of what turned out to be one of the biggest scandals in sports history.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2006, Button returned to Olympic coverage for the first time in 18 years, working on loan to NBC at the Turin Games. His limited role was so well-received, NBC expanded his duties on the spot \u2014 a relationship that carried through to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.<\/p>\n

\n\tEmbraced by a new generation on social media for his shade-throwing, Button\u2019s live Twitter<\/a> commentary of the 2014 and 2018 Games was, as always, exultant and devastating.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTruly dislike gushy crying finishes \u2026 what is this?\u201d he tweeted during the Pyeongchang Games about skaters dramatically feigning shock over performances that were just so-so.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven in his 90s, Button never relinquished his role as guardian. In 2020, he used U.S. Figure Skating\u2019s work-from-home challenge to chide the International Skating Union for encouraging convoluted excess on the ice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe returned to ABC in 2010 as a a judge on ABC\u2019s Skating With the Stars<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to his daughter, survivors include his son, Edward; both are from his 1973-84 marriage to figure skating coach Slavka Kahout, who guided Lynn and other champions.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen asked by\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0in 2014 if he ever tired of talking about figure skating, Button said no.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNever,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cSkating encourages you to learn about so many art forms: dance, performance, athleticism, history, choreography, even haute couture. How could anyone tire of it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDeborah Wilker<\/em> is a professional figure skater<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n