New York – Dick button was more than the most skillful men’s figure skater in history. He was one of the greatest innovators and promoters of his game.
The winners of the button, two Olympic gold medals and five consecutive world championships died on Thursday, his son, Edward, who did not provide a reason. He was 95 years old.
As an entrepreneur and broadcaster, the button promoted skating and its athletes, converting a niche game into every winter Olympic showpiece.
“Dick was one of the most important figures in our game,” said Scott Hamilton. “There was no skater after the dick that did not help him in any way.”
The influence of the button began after World War II. He was the first American male champion – and at the age of 16 his country’s youngest – when she returned to the competition in 1946. Two years later, he won the title at the St. Moritz Olympics, who were competing outside. He performed the first double axle in any competition and became the first American to win the men’s program.
“By the way, there was a deception in that jump,” button told the US Olympic committee website. “But listen, I did it and this was the count.”
It began its dominance of international skating, and American amateur games. He was the first figure skater to win the prestigious Sulivan Award in 1949 – no other figure skater won it in 2001 till Mitchell Quan.
In 1952, as a student from Harvard, he won the second gold at the Oslo Games, making the competition more history with the first triple jump (a loop). Soon after, he won the fifth world title, then quit his eligibility as an amateur. All Olympic sports were at that time under an amateur/professional division.
“I had achieved everything that I could dream of doing as a skater,” said button, who earned a law degree from Harvard in 1956. It was very important to me. ,
With the Amy Award winning button as a TV analyst, the audience not only got to learn the basics, but also broke the nuances of a game in many ways for many people. He dropped Jim McKake and the helpless ski jumper on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports”.
The 1988 Olympic champion Brian Bitano said in the autobiography of the button, “Dick button is the patron in the history of the figure skating and its Quintage Voice.” “He made the words ‘Lutz’ and ‘Salacho’ of our everyday vocabulary.”
After a 1961 plane crash, the entire US Figure Skating Team was killed on the way to the World Championship, which was then canceled, button to television the 1962 program on “Wide World” to ABC Sports Executive Ron Arjel on “Wide World” Persuaded Then he joined the network as a commentator.
Button died with another tragedy in the world of skating, an American airline flight accident that collided with an army helicopter and fell into the Pottomac River outside Washington, DC, causing death of all on the board Went. Two teenage figures, their mothers, and two former world champions who were coaching at Skating Club of Boston, were among 14 people killed from the skating community.
The buttons were skating to the Boston Club and remained close to it for the rest of your life. The trophy room in the club is named in his honor.
He also provided opportunities to the skaters to make money after his competitive career. He ran the professional events created for TV for years, attracted many top names in the game – Hamilton, Torville and Dean, Christie Yamaguchi, Kurt Browning and Katrina Witt.
Button’s Candidate Productions, 1959 was formed, also produced such med for-TV programs such as the “Battle of Network Stars”. He also dubbed acting, but Rink was his scope.
“Dick button created an open and honest place in figure skating broadcasting, where no subject or moment was off-lymph,” Johnny Veer said, three-time American champion and current NBC sports figure skating analyst. “He stated that it was still, when his opinion was not a popular. When I perform for him, I was always in my mind, and I wanted to be happy and proud of him as my coaches.
“I think this picture is very special about skating. As an athlete, we rarely have the opportunity to speak, and we rely on the voice of the TV to tell our story for us. No one could do it like a Mr. button.