Dick Button

Dick Button is, to me, the patron saint of figure skating commentary and one of the genuine pioneers of the sport. Two Olympic golds and five straight World titles would be legacy enough, but he also pushed the technical envelope, landing the first double axel and the first triple jump ever seen in competition. What I love most is his second act as a broadcaster, where his blunt, knowledgeable voice taught generations of American viewers how to actually watch skating. When he spoke, you believed him because he had done it himself at the highest level. Few athletes shape a sport twice; he managed it.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Dick Button (1929-2025) was an American figure skater and television commentator born in Englewood, New Jersey. He won two Olympic gold medals, in 1948 and 1952, and five consecutive World Championships, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the sport by landing the first double axel and the first triple jump in competition. After retiring he became the long-running, Emmy-winning voice of figure skating on American television. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2024.

Name (English)

Dick Button

Name (Japanese)

ディック・バトン

Reading

でぃっく・ばとん

Born

July 18, 1929 – January 30, 2025

Origin

Englewood, New Jersey, United States

Occupation

Actor / Television actor / Figure skater / Film actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Snake

Awards & achievements

• 2024 New Jersey Hall of Fame

• Official sitehttp://www.dickbutton.com
• Xhttps://x.com/PushDicksButton
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick%20Button
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BB%E3%83%90%E3%83%88%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q572177

Tags

• From New Jersey
• Actor
• Television actor
• Figure skater

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.