Dick Button, figure skating legend and Olympic champion, dies at 95
The Dick button is the most accomplished man in history. He is one of his greatest innovators and sponsor.
His son Edward said Button was the two Olympic gold medals and five consecutive world champions. His son Edward said he did not provide his career. He is 95 years old.
As an entrepreneur and broadcasting company, Button promotes skating and its athletes, turning the niche movement into an exhibition of the Olympic Games per winter.
Scott Hamilton said: “Dick is one of the most important characters in our movement.” “Dick did not help him to some extent.”
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
The impact of buttons began after World War II. He was the first men’s champion and the smallest champion of his country at the age of 16-1946 to participate in the competition. Two years later, he He won the champion at the St. Moritz Olympic GamesOutdoor competition. He performed his first double axis in any game and became the first American to win men’s events.
according to Philadelphia skating club and humanitarian societyThe button was a member from 1946 to 1952. The button is now in the hall of the club.
“By the way, this jump cheat for this,” Barton said on the website of the Olympic Committee of the United States. “But listen, I did it, this is important.”
This started his dominance in international ice skating and American amateur movements. He was the first figure skaters who won the prestigious Salvin in 1949-until Michelle Kwan, 2001, without other figure skaters won the game.
In 1952, students from Harvard University He won the second gold medal in OsloUse the first three -level jump (cycle) to create more history in the competition. Soon after, he won the fifth world champion and then gave up his qualifications as amateur. At that time, all Olympic Games were bound by amateur/professional departments.
“I have realized the ice skisting person I dream of Dream,” Barton said, he obtained a legal degree from Harvard University in 1956. “I can enjoy ice cream (performance) and keep skating. It is very important to me.”
With the Emmy Award -winning button as a TV analyst, the audience must not only learn the basic knowledge, but also learn the subtle difference between a sport to many people, because he frankly said the performance. Like Jim MCKay and unfortunate ski jumping lines rolling on the slope, he became a fixed device for ABC’s “vast sports world”.
The 1988 Olympic champion Brian Boitano said in the autobiography of the buttons: “The Dick button is a custodian of the figure skating and its typical sound history.” Words shrink into part of our daily vocabulary. “
In 1961, the aircraft crashed and killed the entire American figure skating team. On the way to the World Championships, it was canceled. Barton persuaded the ABC sports director Roone Arledge to TV on the “Vast World” in 1962. It was when he joined the Internet as a commentator.
Barton’s death was in line with another tragedy in the skating world. On Wednesday night, US Airlines’ flight collision collided with the Army helicopter, and hit the Potoma River outside Washington, DC, killed everyone on the boat. Essence Two young figure skating athletes coached at the Boston Skating Club, their mother and two former world champions were one of the 14 people killed from the skating community.
The button was skipped at the Boston Club and kept approaching in his rest. The club’s trophy room is named after his honor.
He also provided a chance to make money after a competitive career for skating athletes. He has created professional activities on television for many years, attracting many top-level names-Hamilton, Tolville and Dian, Christie Shangci, Kurt Browning and Catalina Witt.
Button’s frank works were established in 1959, and also produced TV programs such as “Battle of the Internet”. He was also involved in the performance, but the skating rink was his field.
Johnny Weir, the third American champion and the current NBC sports skating analyst, said: “Dick Button created an open and honest space in the skating radio.” “He said That way, even if his opinions are not popular.
“I think it’s very special about commentary figure skating. As a athlete, we rarely have the opportunity to speak. We rely on the TV voice to tell us our story. No one can do it like Mr. Pudding.”
