Slavka kohout

Mr frick ice skater
Peggy fleming
Richard burton

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Richard T. Button Trophy Room

As a two-time Olympic champion, five-time World champion, three-time North American champion and seven-time U.S. champion, Richard (Dick) Button has set a standard for the sport of figure skating that few will ever come close to meeting. Apart from his success on the podium, his innovation on the ice was something to behold. Dick was the first skater to land a double Axel; the first skater to land a triple jump; the first male skater to perform the camel spin, and he is the inventor of the flying camel spin. In addition, Dick Button didn’t just add to the history of American figure skating, he helped create it. Dick was the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating; the first American to win a World Championship (1948); the only American to win a European Championship (1948), and he is the only male skater to simultaneously hold the Olympic, World, North American, European and National Championship titles.

To that end, it is with great pride that The Skating Club of Boston is establishing the Richard T. Button

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Dick Button

There is perhaps no athlete more entwined in the legacy of his sport — and more responsible for its popularity and success — than Dick Button. To track the history of figure skating over the past three-quarters of a century is to follow the career trajectory of Button, from two-time Olympic gold medalist in 1948 and 1952 to expert commentator to the definitive voice of the sport for more than 50 years.

“No other figure skater embodies the sport as much as Dick Button. He is, and always will be, the godfather of this sport,” says NBC Sports figure skating analyst and Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski. “Using his wit, passion, and unfiltered honesty, Dick drew in ever increasing television audiences whether they were new viewers or dedicated fans. [He] raised the profile of the sport to unprecedented heights showing that figure skating encompasses athleticism, grace, and, sometimes, drama.”

Button first entered the broadcast booth in 1960, as an expert commentator for CBS’s coverage of the Olympic Winter Games in Squaw Valley, CA. CBS had just purchased the national

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Prior to World War II, figure skating was simply that, cutting pretty figures on the ice. But with his bold jumps and spins, Dick Button ushered in a newer, modern era of athleticism on ice. His record clearly makes him the most dominant figure skater, male or female, of the modern era.

Dick Button won the U.S. men’s title from 1946 through 1952, the world title from 1948 until 1952, and two Olympic gold medals. In 1948 he became the first American to win the European championship, and it was promptly changed to a closed event. From 1946 on, he was beaten only once, in a highly controversial decision at the 1947 world championships, where he outscored the Swiss skater Hans Gerschwiler but was relegated to second place by ordinal scores. So dominant was Button that at the 1952 Olympics, he became the first and only individual to be placed first by every Olympic judge in every phase of the competition.

Button was the first skater to perform several risky jumps in competition, among them the double axel and triple toe loop. In 1949 he won the Sullivan Award, emblematic of the outst