Olympic athlete, broadcaster, actor and entrepreneur Dick Button has died.
He was 95 years old.
The Associated Press called Button “one of his sport’s great innovators and promoters, the man responsible not only for inventing the flying camel spin but describing it to generations of fans.”
Button’s death at his North Salem, New York, home on Thursday, was confirmed by his son and daughter who did not say how their father died, but that his health had been in decline, The Washington Post reported.
Olympic gold medal skater Scott Hamilton said, “Dick was one of the most important figures in our sport. There wasn’t a skater after Dick who wasn’t helped by him in some way,” the AP reported.
Button himself won two Olympic gold medals and five consecutive world championships.
U.S. Figure Skating, which is dealing with the loss of several skaters, coaches and parents in the deadly helicopter/airplane collision in Washington, D.C., said of Button, “The two-time Olympic champion’s pioneering style and award-winning television commentary revolutionized figure skating. His legacy will live on forever. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.”
Button had skated as part of the Skating Club of Boston, where 14 people who were killed in Wednesday’s crash trained or coached.
The trophy room at the skating club is named in honor of Button and held the Dick Button Artistic Figure Skating Showcase.
Button was only 16 when he competed in 1946, the first competition held after World War II. He won gold at the St. Moritz Olympics two years later after performing the first double axel in any competition. He also was the first American man to win the event.
He won the Sullivan Award in 1949, and no other skater won that award until Michelle Kwan did in 2001.
The winning and innovation did not stop for Button. He won gold at the Oslo game where he did the first triple jump in competition.
After winning his fifth world title he became pro to perform in shows.
“I had achieved everything I could have dreamed of doing as a skater,” Button said, according to the AP. “I was able to enjoy the Ice Capades and keep my hand in skating, and that was very important to me.”
He fought for his sport, frequently questioning judges’ standards and trying to replace the international governing body, the Post reported.
“No other individual in the 20th century represents the sport better than Dick Button,” Mark Lund, skating analyst, said in 1999 according to the newspaper. “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.”
He also had aspirations off the ice, earning a law degree from Harvard in 1956 and was an Emmy Award-winning analyst and was part of ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.”
Button allowed fellow skaters to still take the ice when their competition days were over by running events such as the World Professional Figure Skating Championships, the Challenge of Champions and other events.
He acted in such films as “Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates,” “The Young Doctors,” and “The Bad News Bears Go to Japan,” even lending his voice to an episode of “Animaniacs,” according to IMDB. Button also started a production studio, Candid Productions, which made shows such as “Battle of the Network Stars.”
Button leaves behind his partner Dennis Grimaldi and two children, the AP reported.
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