Dick Button
(photo credit Figure Skating Hall of Fame)
How do you know you're a legend in a sport? For starters, when an athlete creates a signature move or style that goes on to become standard, that's a sure sign of a future hall of famer. However, when an athlete helps develop a sport and still influences athletes more than 50 years later, as in the case of former figure skater and renowned ice skating commentator Dick Button, legendary status is unanimous both in the record books and among sports fans.
Button, a New Jersey native and perhaps the country's most-recognized figure skating analyst and color commentator, is the only figure skater to ever garner two Olympic gold medals, having won titles in 1948 and in 1952. Button will be joining the 11 other U.S. Olympic figure skating champions at the 2010 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane. The gold medalists will participate in an on-ice presentation during the final performance of the event at the Smucker’s Skating Spectacular on Sunday, Jan. 24.
While Button has been a dominant and influential figure in the ice skating world since his first championship in the late '40s, there was a time when success didn't appear to be on his horizon, however brief. Though Button began skating at a young age, it wasn't until his teenage years that he started to take it seriously, having been spurred on by statements from his first coach that he didn't believe the youngster had any ability and would never learn to skate. But once he did, both Button and the skating sport would never be the same.
After just two years of competing under the guidance of a coach, Button won the U.S. National Novice Men's Champion and was well on his way to blazing a trail in the sport with his signature skating style and revolutionary routines.
Throughout his career, Button was at the forefront of the sport. Not only was he the first American to win an Olympic ice skating title and the only U.S. figure skater to win two Olympic gold medals, his accolades go far beyond the podium. He's influenced skaters for generations, both knowingly and unknowingly, through his then-unseen move set. On his resume, Button is cited as being the first skater to successfully land the double axel jump in competition in 1948, and upped the ante four years later by landing the first triple jump in a performance with a triple loop.
Known more today as an Emmy award-winning skating commentator, Button, a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, was also the originator of the "flying camel" spin, formerly called the "Button camel." If that wasn't enough to secure a place in the hall of fame, Button had a seven-year reign as the national men's figure skating champion and won the world figure skating title five years in a row.
In 1976, Button was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame, and he's been one of the most-recognized voices in sports commentary since he became a figure skating analyst for ABC Sports in 1962.
The Olympic gold medalists who are scheduled to appear at the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships are: Dick Button (1948, 52), Tenley Albright (1956), Hayes Jenkins (1956), Carol Heiss Jenkins (1960), David Jenkins (1960), Peggy Fleming (1968), Dorothy Hamill (1976), Scott Hamilton (1984), Brian Boitano (1988), Kristi Yamaguchi (1992), Tara Lipinski (1998) and Sarah Hughes (2002).
The U.S. Figure Skating Championships will begin Jan. 14 at the Spokane Arena.