U.S. figure skating icon Dick Button, who won two Olympic gold medals on the ice before becoming the voice of the sport on television, died Thursday, U.S. Figure Skating said.
Button was 95.
The Associated Press first reported Button’s death, citing his son Edward who did not reveal a cause of the passing.
Then U.S. Figure Skating, already reeling from the deaths of more than a dozen up-and-coming competitors in a midair collision over the Potomac River near Washington D.C. on Wednesday night, later confirmed the news of Button’s death in North Salem, New York.
“U.S. Figure Skating mourns the loss of the legendary Dick Button,” the American governing body of the sports said in a statement. “The two-time Olympic champion’s pioneering style & award-winning television commentary revolutionized figure skating. His legacy will live on forever. We extend our deepest condolences to his family & loved ones.”
Button first came to prominence in 1948, winning Olympic gold in St. Moritz by being the first skater to land a double axel in competition.
He followed up that groundbreaking effort by sticking a first-ever triple loop and innovating the “Button camel,” now called the flying camel spin, in his gold-medal-winning effort in Oslo in 1952.
But Button’s lasting legacy came, not with skates, but with microphones and cameras.
He commented on figure skating for CBS in 1960 at the Olympics in Squaw Valley, California.
Audiences reveled in Button’s wit and brutal honesty, making him an Olympic staple. For generations of Americans, Button’s voice was synonymous with the sport itself.
He provided figure skating analysis for NBC at the Winter Games in 2006 in Turin and 2010 in Vancouver, before he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2015.
“No other figure skater embodies the sport as much as Dick Button. He is, and always will be, the godfather of this sport,” NBC Sports figure skating analyst and Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski said in Button’s Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame profile.
Lipinski’s broadcasting partner, Johnny Weir, said Button’s blunt takes set him apart.
“Dick Button created an open and honest space in figure-skating broadcasting where no topic or moment was off-limits,” Weir said. “He told it like it was, even when his opinion wasn’t a popular one.”
Button is survived by his longtime partner and spouse Dennis Grimaldi, and his two children, Edward Button and Emily Button, U.S. Figure Skating said.
