Button Retains World Skating Title

Dick Button upheld his men's figure skating supremacy by winning his second straight world championship in Paris yesterday. Button has not been beaten in two years on the ice.

The 19-year-old Olympic Gold Medalist from Englewood, New Jersey, gave a spectacular performance of skating grace and skill in the freestyle events to gain the crown without serious opposition.

Ede Kiraly of Hungary finished second and Edi Rada of Austria, the European figure skating champion, third in the final standings.

Other United States skating entries also placed high in the competition. James Grogan of Oakland, California, was fourth. Hayes Allen Jenkins of Akron, Ohio, and Austin Holt of Berkeley, California, finished sixth and seventh, respectively.

Freestyle skating, Button's specialty, was the field in which the Massachusetts Hall resident most outshone his opponents. He went through his repertoire of runs, mid-air twirls, high splits, and prodigious leaps without a slip.