Dick Button, a legendary figure skater, innovator and promoter of the sport, passed away at 95. Known for his groundbreaking achievements, including performing the first double axel and triple jump in competition, Button revolutionized figure skating and brought it to a wider audience through his broadcasting and entrepreneurial endeavors.
NEW YORK — 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.
“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.” That began his dominance of international skating, and U.S. amateur sports. He was the first figure skater to win the prestigious Sullivan Award in 1949 — no other figure skater won it until Michelle Kwan in 2001.
With the Emmy Award-winning Button as the TV analyst, viewers got to learn not only the basics but the nuances of a sport foreign to many as he frankly broke down the performances. He became as much a fixture on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” as Jim McKay and the hapless ski jumper tumbling down the slope.
Button’s death coincided with another tragedy in the skating world, Wednesday night’s crash of an American Airlines flight that collided with an Army helicopter and plummeted into the Potomac River outside Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board. Two teenage figure skaters, their mothers, and two former world champions who were coaching at the Skating Club of Boston were among the 14 people killed from the skating community.
FIGURESCATING OLYMPICS BROADCASTING INNOVATION SPORTS LEGEND
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