Athletes - Dick Button

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	Athletes - Dick Button

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. Fed by 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' faults. 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. At the 2006 games, 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.

Competitive highlights

1946

U.S. Championships - 1st

1947

U.S. Championships - 1st
World Championships - 2nd

1948

U.S. Championships - 1st
Olympics - 1st
World Championships - 1st
European Championships - 1st

1949

U.S. Championships - 1st
World Championships - 1st

1950

U.S. Championships - 1st
World Championships - 1st

1951

U.S. Championships - 1st
World Championships - 1st

1952

U.S. Championships - 1st
Olympics - 1st
World Championships - 1st

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dick Button ]

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