Richard Totten Button was an American figure skater and longtime skating broadcaster who lived from 1929 to 2025 and won the Olympic gold medal in men's singles at both the 1948 St. Moritz and 1952 Oslo Winter Games, in addition to five consecutive World Championship titles from 1948 through 1952 and the 1948 European Championship, making him the only American ever to win that title. He was the first skater to land a double Axel, doing so at the 1948 Olympics, and the first to land a triple jump in competition, a triple loop performed at the 1952 Olympics, and he invented the flying camel spin, originally called the Button camel in his honor. Following his competitive career he became an influential television commentator, beginning with CBS's coverage of the 1960 Winter Olympics and continuing for decades with ABC Sports.
Facts
Career HighlightTwo-time Olympic champion (1948, 1952) 1 Classification
Competition Category In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Dick Button, Wikipedia
Lead paragraph, sentence 1, birth date
Richard Totten Button (July 18, 1929
Lead paragraph, sentence 1, birth year
Richard Totten Button (July 18, 1929
Lead paragraph, sentence 1, death date
January 30, 2025) was an American figure skater and skating analyst.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1, death year
January 30, 2025) was an American figure skater and skating analyst.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1, nationality
was an American figure skater and skating analyst.
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He was a two-time Olympic champion (1948, 1952)
Wikipedia, article summary lead
Richard Totten Button (July 18, 1929 – January 30, 2025) was an American figure skater and skating analyst.
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