In 1926 Kneser showed that homeomorphisms of $\mathbf{S}^2$ admit a retraction into the orthogonal group $O(3)$. Smale extended this result to Diffeomorphisms of $\mathbf{S}^2$ in 1958; however, in that paper he assumes that the diffeomorphisms are of class $C^k$ for $k\geq 2$. So my question is: Has anyone established Smale's theorem for $C^1$ diffeomorphisms?