Russian figure skater changes Olympic music over copyright - ESPN

MILAN — Russian figure skater Petr Gumennik has been forced to change his short program music two days before the men's program at the Milan Cortina Olympics after joining a growing list of figure skaters dealing with copyright issues.

Gumennik, who is participating as a neutral athlete at the Winter Games, had been working all season to music from «Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,» a psychological thriller film. But the 23-year-old Russian national champion learned in the past few days that he did not have proper permission to perform to the music, leaving him in limbo as the Winter Games began.

Given such a tight timeframe, Gumennik was unable to get clearance for his music from last season, which came from the space opera film «Dune.» So he pivoted to «Waltz 1805» by Edgar Hakobyan, for which Gumennik was able to get permission.

The men's competition begins Tuesday night with the short program.

This past week, Spanish skater Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate was forced to work feverishly to obtain approval for music to his short program, set to a medley from the animated comedy film «Minions.» Sabate had been performing the fan-favorite program all season, only to learn that Universal Studios was poised to reject the use of it during the Winter Games.

Sabate began to work on a backup program while getting approval for two cuts of music. He obtained the third by reaching out to the artist, a fellow Spaniard. And he was granted use of the final piece, «Freedom» by Pharrell Williams, on Friday.

«It hasn't been an easy process,» Sabate said, «but the support of everyone who has followed my case has been key to keeping me motivated and optimistic these past few days.»

Loena Hendrickx of Belgium also was concerned about