Dick Button
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Richard "Dick" Button (born July 18, 1929 in Englewood, New Jersey) is an American former figure skater and a well-known long-time skating television analyst.
Biography
Button was a five-time world champion from 1948 to 1952 and won the gold medal at the 1948 and 1952 Winter Olympics. In 1949, he won the Sullivan Award as the outstanding amateur athlete in the United States.
Button was the first skater to successfully land the double axel jump in competition (in 1948, although on the video it appears he did not complete the full rotation), as well as the first triple jump of any kind -- a triple loop -- in 1952. He also invented the flying camel spin, which was originally known as the "Button camel".
After his competitive skating career ended, Button toured with Ice Capades and Holiday on Ice, and completed a law degree at Harvard University.
He has been a figure skating analyst for ABC Sports since 1962. During ABC's coverage of Olympics in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s Button became the sport's best-known analyst, well known for his frank and oftentimes caustic appraisal of skaters' performances. Although other U.S. television networks aired the Winter Olympics from the 1990s onward, Button still appeared on ABC's broadcasts of the U.S. and World Figure Skating Championships. During the 2006 games (covered by NBC), Button appeared on loan from ABC to once again commentate on the Olympics.
As founder of Candid Productions, he created a variety of made-for-television sports events, including the World Professional Figure Skating Championships as well as other non-skating sports events such as Superstars.
Button was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1976.
In 1975, Button married figure skating coach Slavka Kohout, but they later divorced.
Button suffered a serious head injury in 1978 when he was one of several men randomly assaulted in Central Park by a gang of youths armed with baseball bats and tree branches in a gay bashing incident. According to reports in the New York Times, Button had been jogging in the park near his home and was attacked while he was watching a dusk fireworks display. The assailants were later apprehended.
Competitive highlights
1946- U.S. Championships - 1st
- U.S. Championships - 1st
- World Championships - 2nd
- U.S. Championships - 1st
- Olympics - 1st
- World Championships - 1st
- European Championships - 1st
- U.S. Championships - 1st
- World Championships - 1st
- U.S. Championships - 1st
- World Championships - 1st
- U.S. Championships - 1st
- World Championships - 1st
- U.S. Championships - 1st
- Olympics - 1st
- World Championships - 1st
See also
External links
Navigation
| 1908: Ulrich Salchow | 1920: Gillis Grafström | 1924: Gillis Grafström | 1928: Gillis Grafström | 1932: Karl Schäfer | 1936: Karl Schäfer | 1948: Dick Button | 1952: Dick Button | 1956: Hayes Alan Jenkins | 1960: David Jenkins | 1964: Manfred Schnelldorfer | 1968: Wolfgang Schwarz | 1972: Ondrej Nepela | 1976: John Curry | 1980: Robin Cousins | 1984: Scott Hamilton | 1988: Brian Boitano | 1992: Viktor Petrenko | 1994: Alexei Urmanov | 1998: Ilia Kulik | 2002: Alexei Yagudin | 2006: Evgeni Plushenko |
| 1896: Gilbert Fuchs | 1897: Gustav Hügel | 1898: Henning Grenander | 1899-1900: Gustav Hügel | 1901-1905: Ulrich Salchow | 1906: Gilbert Fuchs | 1907-1911: Ulrich Salchow | 1912-1913: Fritz Kachler | 1914: Gosta Sandahl | 1922: Gillis Grafström | 1923: Fritz Kachler | 1924: Gillis Grafström | 1925-1928: Willy Böckl | 1929: Gillis Grafström | 1930-1936: Karl Schäfer | 1937-1938: Felix Kaspar | 1939: Graham Sharp | 1947: Hans Gerschwiler | 1948-1952: Richard Button | 1953-1956: Hayes Alan Jenkins | 1957-1959: David Jenkins | 1960: Alain Giletti | 1962: Donald Jackson | 1963: Donald McPherson | 1964: Manfred Schnelldorfer | 1965: Alain Calmat | 1966-1968: Emmerich Danzer | 1969-1970: Tim Wood | 1971-1973: Ondrej Nepela | 1974: Jan Hoffmann | 1975: Sergey Volkov | 1976: John Curry | 1977: Vladimir Kovalev | 1978: Charles Tickner | 1979: Vladimir Kovalev | 1980: Jan Hoffmann | 1981-1984: Scott Hamilton | 1985: Alexander Fadeev | 1986: Brian Boitano | 1987: Brian Orser | 1988: Brian Boitano | 1989-1991: Kurt Browning | 1992: Viktor Petrenko | 1993: Kurt Browning | 1994-1995: Elvis Stojko | 1996: Todd Eldredge | 1997: Elvis Stojko | 1998-2000: Alexei Yagudin | 2001: Evgeni Plushenko | 2002: Alexei Yagudin | 2003-2004: Evgeni Plushenko | 2005-2006: Stéphane Lambiel |
| 1891: Oskar Uhlig | 1892-1894: Eduard Engelmann jr. | 1895: Tibor von Foldvary | 1898-1900: Ulrich Salchow | 1901: Gustav Hügel | 1904: Ulrich Salchow | 1905: Max Bohatsch | 1906-1907: Ulrich Salchow | 1908: Ernst Herz | 1909-1910: Ulrich Salchow | 1911: Per Thoren | 1912: Gosta Sandahl | 1913: Ulrich Salchow | 1914: Fritz Kachler | 1922-1923: Willy Böckl | 1924: Fritz Kachler | 1925-1928: Willy Böckl | 1929-1936: Karl Schäfer | 1937-1938: Felix Kaspar | 1939: Graham Sharp | 1947: Hans Gerschwiler | 1948: Richard Button | 1949: Edi Rada | 1950: Ede Kiraly | 1951-1952: Helmut Seibt | 1953-1954: Carlo Fassi | 1955-1957: Alain Giletti | 1958-1959: Karol Divin | 1960-1961: Alain Giletti | 1962-1964: Alain Calmat | 1965-1968: Emmerich Danzer | 1969-1973: Ondrej Nepela | 1974: Jan Hoffmann | 1975: Vladimir Kovalev | 1976: John Curry | 1977-1979: Jan Hoffmann | 1980: Robin Cousins | 1981: Igor Bobrin | 1982-1983: Norbert Schramm | 1984: Alexander Fadeev | 1985-1986: Jozef Sabovcik | 1987-1989: Alexander Fadeev | 1990-1991: Viktor Petrenko | 1992: Petr Barna | 1993: Dmitri Dmitrenko | 1994: Viktor Petrenko | 1995: Ilia Kulik | 1996: Viacheslav Zagorodniuk | 1997: Alexei Urmanov | 1998-1999: Alexei Yagudin | 2000-2001: Evgeny Plushenko | 2002: Alexei Yagudin | 2003: Evgeny Plushenko | 2004: Brian Joubert | 2005-2006: Evgeny Plushenko |
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