The Silencing of Figure Skaters at the 2026 Milan Olympics by Copyright Law

Mar 6, 2026

By Katelyn Kohler, Esq.

Days before his Olympic debut, Spanish figure skater Tomás-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté faced an athlete’s nightmare. He learned his Minions-themed program, which he performed successfully all season, could not be used at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics due to copyright issues.[50] “Finding this out last Friday, so close to the biggest competition of my life, was incredibly disappointing,” Guarino wrote.[51] After frantic negotiations with Universal Pictures, Pharrell Williams, and Sony Music, he secured licenses hours before competition.[52] Russian skater Petr Gumennik was not as fortunate, forced to abandon music from “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” two days before his event.[53] Belgian skater Loena Hendrickx and Canadian ice dancers Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain LeGac similarly changed programs due to copyright concerns.[54] This copyright crisis at Milan represents the culmination of decades-old legal vulnerabilities finally catching up with figure skating’s modernization efforts.

A Problem Decades in the Making

The Milan crisis was not unprecedented. In 1991, ESPN faced litigation for broadcasting Skate America, where a skater performed to Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” without proper licensing.[55] The court ruled that cable network transmissions constitute separate public performances under copyright law, establishing that both live performances and broadcasts require independent licenses. This case foreshadowed today’s crisis but went largely overlooked.

The problem intensified after 2014, when the International Skating Union (ISU) permitted vocals in competitive music to modernize the sport and attract younger audiences. For decades prior, skaters performed to instrumental classical music residing in the public domain, avoiding copyright concerns entirely.[56] The rule change succeeded in making skating more engaging, as skaters now perform to Madonna, Ed Sheeran, and contemporary hits, but exposed athletes to legal vulnerabilities their predecessors never faced.[57]

This legal reckoning finally arrived in 2022. After U.S. pair skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier won Olympic gold at Beijing skating to a cover of “House of the Rising Sun,” indie band Heavy Young Heathens sued them, NBC, and U.S. Figure Skating for copyright infringement. In Twelve Sixty LLC v. Comcast Corp.,[58] the complaint alleged “blatant and purposeful infringement” that caused “enormous and irreparable harm.”[59] The case settled for an undisclosed amount.[60]

The 2024 Rule Change That Changed Everything

In response, U.S. Figure Skating partnered with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) to secure blanket performance licenses encompassing songs “100% covered through ASCAP and/or BMI.”[61] Skaters verify coverage through an online database. For songs outside these catalogs, skaters must use ClicknClear, a music licensing platform, to attempt individual licensing. According to figure skating coach Aimée Ricca, the organization purchased these expensive licenses not by choice but by necessity, acting “not as the originator . . . [but] as the messenger of copyright law.”[62]

However, these blanket licenses do not cover live or on-demand streaming, nor sales or distribution of video containing music.[63] Again, the ESPN litigation taught us that Olympic broadcasts require separate synchronization rights that ASCAP and BMI licenses do not provide.[64] The “traveling performer” problem also creates an issue. Competitive skaters perform the same program across multiple venues throughout a season. Skaters cannot plausibly verify that every competition venue has secured rights to their specific musical selections.[65]

Why Fair Use Fails Figure Skaters

Under 17 U.S.C. § 107, courts examine four factors: purpose and character of use, nature of the copyrighted work, amount used, and market effect.[66] While skaters might argue their performances are transformative, combining music with choreography, jumps, and artistic interpretation, the Supreme Court’s emphasis in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose on whether new work adds “something new” faces obstacles when the music itself remains unchanged.[67] The commercial nature of Olympic competition weighs heavily against fair use and more problematic is the amount and substantiality used. Knierim and Frazier’s two-minute-forty-second performance utilized half of the original song.[68]

Yet, figure skaters rarely use complete songs. Instead, coaches and choreographers edit multiple pieces into two-to-four-minute compilations. This practice implicates copyright law’s treatment of musical sampling. The Sixth Circuit’s decision in Bridgeport Music, Inc. held that “even when a small part of a sound recording is sampled, the part taken is something of value.”[69] The court emphasized that sample length matters little where any recognizable portion requires permission. This practical impact appears today at the modern-day Milan Olympics when U.S. medal hopeful Alysa Liu abandoned a Lady Gaga orchestral cover found on YouTube after learning it constituted copyright violation. “We were actually choreographing to the orchestral version,” Liu explained. “Competition comes around, [and her team said], No, we can’t risk it.”[70]

When the Music Stopped in Milan 2026

Despite current licensing systems, the Milan Olympics reveals some high-profile legal risks for many skaters. Guarino submitted music through ISU’s ClicknClear system in August and competed with the program all season.[71] Yet, Universal Pictures initially rejected the global, televised Olympic use. By skating in a yellow shirt and blue overalls to Minions music, Guarino visually invoked the billion-dollar franchise, perhaps further implicating branding and implied endorsement issues. Only public pressure convinced Universal to permit “one special occasion” use.[72]

Russian skater Gumennik illustrates another vulnerability. Working all season to “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” he discovered days before competition he lacked proper permission. Unable to secure clearance for his backup choice from the movie “Dune,” he pivoted to classic “Waltz 1805.”[73] In doing so, the sport’s push to modernize and engage audiences is weakened, forcing skaters to pivot from contemporary music to older, public-domain selections that align less with the intended artistic vision. ISU President Jae Youl Kim called copyright issues “a very, very, very serious problem,” adding “We don’t want athletes to be worried about the music.”[74] Yet, Milan demonstrated that existing systems fail when Olympic stakes amplify rights holders’ concerns about global brand exposure.[75]

Conclusion

The 2026 Milan Olympics crystallized figure skating’s copyright crisis. Multiple athletes faced program changes despite following official procedures and submitting music through approved systems months earlier. Guarino’s last-minute resolution represented victory for fan pressure but underscored athletes’ risky legal position. When Olympic dreams can be derailed by licensing issues days before competition, the current system has failed.

Music is essential to skating’s artistic and commercial identity, yet rule changes allowing copyrighted vocal music have outpaced licensing structures. When Knierim and Frazier’s 2022 Olympic gold-medal performance was watched by hundreds of millions worldwide, right holders viewed it not as an artistic homage but as unauthorized commercial use of their copyrighted work without compensation.

U.S. Figure Skating’s blanket ASCAP and BMI licenses represent progress but leave critical gaps: no streaming coverage, no synchronization rights for broadcasts, no protection for traveling performers at international venues. Moreover, the ClicknClear system depends on timely responses from rights holders, something not guaranteed with Olympic exposure and risks. Without comprehensive international licensing frameworks that fast-track clearance processes, skaters will continue performing on thin ice−legally and literally−where copyright law can silence the very music that defines their sport.

Katelyn Kohler, Esq. is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School in Boston, specializing in Sports & Entertainment, Intellectual Property, and Labor & Employment Law. She holds dual degrees from Ithaca College in Business Administration: Sports Management and Legal Studies.

  1. Sara Germano, Figure Skating Faces Music Licensing Headache on Eve of Olympics, Sportico (Feb. 3, 2026, 12:30 AM), https://www.sportico.com/leagues/olympics/2026/figure-skating-music-licensing-milan-olympics; Sara Germano, ‘Minions’ Is a Go: Figure Skater Says Music Licensing Saga Resolved, Sportico (Feb. 6, 2026), https://www.sportico.com/leagues/olympics/2026/olympics-figure-skating-music-licensing-1234883456/. [herein “Minions Is a Go”]. ↑

  2. Jay Busbee, Winter Olympics 2026: Figure Skating’s First Controversy Arises from … Music Copyright Law, Yahoo Sports (Feb. 2, 2026), https://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/figure-skating-music-copyright-2026. ↑

  3. Minions Is a Go, supra note 1. ↑

  4. Associated Press, Russian Figure Skater Changes Olympic Music Over Copyright, ESPN (Feb. 8, 2026), https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/russian-skater-copyright-music. ↑

  5. Germano, supra note 1 (discussing Canadian duo); Associated Press, supra note 3 (discussing Belgian skater). ↑

  6. Coleman v. ESPN, Inc., 764 F. Supp. 290, 292-93 (S.D.N.Y. 1991). ↑

  7. Emily Day, New Music, New Rules: Figure Skating Into the New Copyright Era, Brooklyn Sports & Ent. L. Blog (June 16, 2025), https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/sportsentlaw/new-music-figure-skating. (analyzing ISU changes that led to copyright issues); see also Vanessa E. Richmond, Skating on Thin Ice: The Intellectual Property Ramifications of a Figure Skater’s Public Performance, 20 Marq. Intell. Prop. L. Rev. 299, 301 (2016). ↑

  8. Busbee, supra note 2 (discussing modern performances and song choices). ↑

  9. Twelve Sixty LLC v. Comcast Corp, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 8:22-cv-00255. ↑

  10. Complaint at 1, Twelve Sixty LLC v. Comcast Corp., No. 8:22-cv-00255 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 16, 2022); see also Day, supra note 7. ↑

  11. Blake Brittain, Olympic Skaters and NBC Settle with Musicians Over Song Use, Reuters (July 22, 2022), https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/olympic-skaters-nbc-settle-with-musicians-over-song-use-2022-07-22/. ↑

  12. Day, supra note 7, n. 30-32. ↑

  13. Aimée Ricca, U.S. Figure Skating’s Controversial Music Announcement & Policy, Coach Aimée Skating Academy (June 29, 2024), https://skatewithaimee.com/blog/f/us-figure-skatings-controversial-music-announcement-policy?srsltid=AfmBOooQwJevOcWg2buRxIEMl65TiwBfzGKCKvRh6QdZQgRjNV_yAg0C. (noting Ricca is a U.S. Figure Skating Core Certified coach with prior professional experience in music and film licensing). ↑

  14. Richmond, supra note 7, at 305–06 (quoting BMI skating rink license). “The skating rink’s license does not protect ‘performances of music via any form of televised transmission, whether over-the-air broadcast, telecast, cablecast, and other electronic transmission (including satellite, the Internet, or online services) to persons outside the licensed premises.’” Id. “The ASCAP also prohibits broadcast of its music outside of the premises in its License Agreement to Roller Rinks.” Id. at 306. ↑

  15. See Coleman v. ESPN, Inc., 764 F. Supp. 290, 294–95 (S.D.N.Y. 1991); Richmond, supra note 7, at 311–12. ↑

  16. Richmond, supra note 7, at 307-8 (noting that skaters are “best” positioned to manage music rights while traveling between rinks). ↑

  17. 17 U.S.C. § 107 (2024). ↑

  18. Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569, 579 (1994); Day, supra note 7. ↑

  19. Day, supra note 7 (applying four factors to Knierim and Frazier case study); Richmond, supra note 7, at 307 (“if a skater uses two-and-a-half minutes for a four minutes song, then the skater is using a substantial portion of the copyrighted work”). ↑

  20. Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films, 410 F.3d 792, 801-02 (6th Cir. 2005); Richmond, supra note 7, at 312-13 (analyzing this role of copyright sampling). ↑

  21. Busbee, supra note 2 (quoting Alysa Liu). ↑

  22. Id. (reporting Guarino went through proper procedures). ↑

  23. Tom Robson, Minions on Thin Ice: How Copyright and Branding Almost Stopped a Spanish Skater’s Olympic Routine, Reddie & Grose (Feb. 6, 2026), https://www.reddie.co.uk/2026/02/06/minions-on-thin-ice-how-copyright-and-branding-almost-stopped-a-spanish-skaters-olympic-routine/; Minions Is a Go, supra note 1. ↑

  24. Associated Press, supra note 4 (discussing Russian skater’s program changes). ↑

  25. Id. (quoting ISU President). ↑

  26. See generally Day, supra note 7; Richmond, supra note 7. ↑

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