R.I.P.: Dick Button, Olympic Skating Champion and TV Analyst

Dick Button, a dominant and electrifying force in figure skating who was the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport, then shaped the public understanding of skating for decades as a producer of competitions and a television analyst known for his impassioned and sometimes acerbic critiques, died Jan. 30 in North Salem, New York. He was 95.

The Washington Post reports few people have exerted as deep and enduring an influence over a sport as Button. As a competitor in the 1940s and early 1950s, he brought an innovative flair to figure skating, inventing jump sequences, spins and other maneuvers never attempted before, as he ushered in an era of American preeminence in the sport.

Later, as a longtime broadcaster, he was the unofficial arbiter of skating. He questioned the judging standards in competitions and once led an unsuccessful effort to replace figure skating’s international governing body with a new organization.

Dick Button

“No other individual in the 20th century represents the sport better than Dick Button,” skating analyst and publisher Mark Lund said in 1999. “From his technical innovations to his creation of the world of professional figure skating competitions … Dick Button has by far had the most influence on the sport during the last century.”

In 1948, he won the first of five straight world titles and became the first and last American to win the European figure skating championship. Button also won his first Olympic title in 1948, skating on an outdoor rink in St. Moritz, Switzerland. He received what is believed to be the first 6.0 mark — a perfect score — given in Olympic competition. He was 18 years old — still the youngest male gold medalist in the sport. On his return to the United States, he was honored at the White House by President Harry S. Truman.

At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Button became the first person to land a triple jump — a triple loop — on his way to winning his second gold medal.

Button covered figure skating for CBS during the 1960 Winter Olympics in California, then joined ABC Sports two years later. He became the voice of skating for generations of viewers, contributing to the network’s weekly “Wide World of Sports” and its Olympic coverage.

Glib, opinionated and extemporaneously eloquent, Mr. Button explained the sport in a way never before seen on television, as if he were a critic covering the opera or ballet. He saw figure skating as a rare blend of athleticism and artistry. “It has music, it has choreography, it has personality,” he said. “You watch it not to see only who wins, but to see how they win.”