Dick Button, Olympic Great and Voice of Figure Skating, Dies at 95

Button's impact on figure skating began after World War II. He was the first U.S. men’s champion — and his country’s youngest at the time at age 16 — when the competition returned in 1946. Two years later, he took gold at the St. Moritz Olympics, back when the competitions were staged outdoors. He performed the first double axel in any competition and became the first American to win the men’s event, paving the way for future champions such as Hamilton, Brian Boitano and Nathan Chen.

“By the way, that jump had a cheat on it,” Button once said. “But listen, I did it and that was what counted.”

That first Olympic title began his dominance of international skating, and U.S. amateur sports in general. 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.

In 1952, while still a student at Harvard, Button won a second gold at the Oslo Games, making more history with the first triple jump (a loop) in competition. Soon after, he won a fifth world title, then gave up his eligibility as an amateur to perform in shows; all Olympic sports were subject to an amateur-professional division at the time.

“I had achieved everything I could have dreamed of doing as a skater,” said Button, who had earned a law degree from Harvard in 1956. “I was able to enjoy the Ice Capades and keep my hand in skating, and that was very important to me.”

With a frank and often brutally honest style, Button became an Emmy Award-winning TV analyst, helping viewers learn not only the basics but also the nuances of a sport unfamiliar to most casual fans. He became as much a fixture on ABC’s Wide World of Sports as Jim McKay and the hapless ski jumper that went tumbling down the slope.

“Dick Button is the custodian of the history of figure skating and its quintessential voice,” Boitano, the 1988 Olympic champion, said in Button’s autobiography. “He made the words ‘lutz’ and ‘salchow’ part of our everyday vocabulary.”

After the 1961 plane crash that killed the entire U.S. figure skating team on the way to the world championships, which then were canceled, Button persuaded ABC Sports executive Roone Arledge to televise the 1962 event on Wide World. That’s when he joined the network as a commentator, and took figure skating to a mainstream television audience.

Button later ran professional events that provided skaters an avenue to profit from their ability once their competitive careers were over. The World Professional Figure Skating Championships, the Challenge of Champions and others provided Hamilton, the dance team of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Kurt Browning, Katarina Witt and others a new platform to perform.

Dick Button executes a jump during a practice session at St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Jan. 19, 1948, in preparation for the Winter Olympics.

AP Photo, File

Button even tried his hand at acting, performing in such shows and films as The Young Doctors and The Bad New Bears Go to Japan. His studio, Candid Productions, helped to produce made-for-TV programs such as Battle of the Network Stars.

“Dick Button created an open and honest space in figure skating broadcasting where no topic or moment was off-limits,” said Johnny Weir, the three-time U.S. champion and current NBC Sports figure skating analyst. “He told it like it was, even when his opinion wasn’t a popular one. His zingers were always in my mind when I would perform for him, and I wanted to make him as happy and proud as I would my coaches.

“That is something very special about commentating figure skating,” Weir said. “As an athlete, we rarely have an opportunity to speak, and we rely on the TV voices to tell our story for us. Nobody could do it like Mr. Button.”

Button is survived by his longtime partner, Dennis Grimaldi, and his two children, Edward and Emily.