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[QUOTE="SWC75, post: 5334929, member: 289"]
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/dick-button-first-u-s-olympic-figure-skating-gold-medalist-dies-at-95/ar-AA1y9v6A?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=c43f5c50463d44df8a39de7af2145e8e&ei=16[/URL]

Both of his Olympic events were held outdoors. Skaters competed to music being played on records and were also judged on compulsory figures, or tracing patterns on the ice.

“It was, in a sense, far more difficult because of the complexity and school figures and compulsory figures and the time — and the all-consuming time — that took,” he said.

Button also won seven consecutive U.S. titles — the first at age 16 — and five consecutive world titles, succeeding while also a student at Harvard. No man has matched either streak since.

"He was the guy that changed the sport forever," 1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton said in 2024. "So many people that came after him learned from him. ... His presence and his greatness and the explosive nature of his athletic ability was beyond spectacular. And he did it all outdoors — all of it outdoors. I can't even imagine skating at that level, outdoors, and he did it in 1948 all the way through 1952."
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