Starting in the early 1990s, after being asked to travel to Tokyo, Japan, to cover a professional figure skating event, Gannon served as host for ABC's figure skating coverage, teaming with former Olympic skaters Peggy Fleming and Dick Button at most major competitions. As sports reporter Barry Jacobs stated, figure skating was "a sport he had not followed", but like every new sport, he approached it with "scholarly zeal" and "as if it was a history project". He would learn a sport's rules, key figures from its past and present, and for the purpose of sounding authentic to its fans, its "idiosyncratic language". Gannon told reporter Barry Wilner that he would also talk about what he knew about the new sport and avoid unfamiliar topics until he learned more about it. Eventually, although he was most closely associated with figure skating and golf, with what Jacobs called "his warm, authoritative voice and understated manner", Gannon announced for a wide variety of sporting events and has been called one of the "most versatile" announcers in TV sports and "the man who knows every game".