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In 2014, the International Skating Union began allowing songs with lyrics in performances, but now, during the ongoing Winter Olympics, the rule has brought fresh challenges.
Skaters now have to make sure they have proper permission to use their songs.(Photo Credit: Instagram)
Skaters did not have to worry much about music rights for many years. Songs with lyrics were not allowed in competitions earlier and most skaters chose classical pieces that were already in the public domain. This meant there were fewer legal problems. In 2014, the International Skating Union changed the rules and began allowing songs with lyrics in performances. This gave skaters more freedom to show their style performance on the ice. Now, during the ongoing Winter Olympics, the rule has brought fresh challenges.
Skaters now have to make sure they have proper permission to use their chosen songs. Clearing music rights can be a long and costly process. The issue becomes even more serious at the Olympic level, where global TV and streaming deals make music approval far more complex and expensive.
Skaters Rush To Get Music Approvals
Spanish skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate garnered attention last week received approval to use music from the animated film Minions. Russian skater Petr Gumennik was not as lucky as Sabate. Just two days before his event, he failed to get the required approval to use music from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Within a short period, he changed his track and switched to Waltz 1805 by Edgar Hakobyan. Meanwhile, American skater Amber Glenn has been performing on The Return for the past two years, which left the artist Seb McKinnon surprised.
Glenn told The Associated Press, “My experience has been chaos. First, we get, like a website or some sort of application to track things. And then once we’re like, ‘OK, yeah, it’s cleared. It’s good,’ suddenly it’s not a reliable source anymore. OK, then what do we do?”
Canadian ice dancer Piper Gilles added, “Even now, we don’t really understand what we can and can’t use, but we’re all working through that. Everybody is trying to get on the same page, but it does make it harder.”
Different Licenses Needed For Arena, TV And Online
Reports say that getting permission to use music in skating is not simple. One license might be required to play the music inside the arena, another for television broadcast and another for online streaming. If the performance is recorded and shown again later, more permission may be needed. Things become even more difficult during global events like the Winter Olympics, since the competition is shown in many countries. Each country has its own copyright rules, which adds more steps to the process.
It also gets harder because many skaters do not use just one full song. They often mix parts of different tracks. This means they must clear rights for each piece of music. All of this can make the process long, stressful, and confusing for athletes and their teams.
Click here to add News18 as your preferred news source on Google. February 12, 2026, 12:49 IST
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