With figure skating events well underway at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games, one would assume the athletes are singularly focused on chasing Olympic medals. But for several skaters, the biggest obstacle isn’t landing a triple loop; it’s legal confusion over usage of copyrighted music in their routines. Multiple athletes—including star U.S. figure skater Amber Glenn—have faced sudden uncertainty that, at the competition that marks the height of their sport, they will be unable to perform using the music they’ve skated to all season long.
Seb McKinnon, a Canadian musical artist, expressed dismay on social media that his song was being “used without permission” after Glenn performed in the Team Figure Skating event during Milano Cortina’s opening weekend (Glenn and McKinnon reportedly reached an understanding). Spanish men’s individual skater Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté nearly scrapped his “Minions”-inspired short program—which he has performed all season without incident—days before his Olympic debut due to a lack of copyright clearance before obtaining last-minute permissions. And Russian men’s figure skater Petr Gumennik (competing as a neutral athlete) did scrap his program, failing to secure clearance for his music in the days leading up to the 2026 opening ceremonies.
With athletes scrambling to understand intellectual property law rather than focusing on skating their best at the Olympic Games, the questions remain: why has figure skating become a copyright minefield, and what can athletes do to ensure they skate a clean program when it comes to infringement?
Rule Changes at the Rink
As a sport that blends athletic ability with artistic interpretation, figure skating requires the use of music for each of two programs performed by each athlete or team. In men’s individual, women’s individual, and pairs skating, each athlete or team skates a two-to-three minute short program and a four-plus minute free skate. Skaters often combine and cut songs to form a program.
Prior to 2014, the International Skating Union (“ISU”), the sport’s governing body, forbade use of music with lyrics. As a result, skaters often chose music that existed in the public domain, such as instrumental classical pieces requiring little or no formal permission for use. This rule existed from the entry of figure skating into the Olympic Games in 1908 through the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. (Ice Dance, the fourth figure skating discipline, has allowed music with lyrics since 1997).
To attract wider audiences, the ISU voted to allow skaters to perform to songs with lyrics, which rule debuted at the Olympic level in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. Almost instantly, copyright mayhem descended on the sport. In the years since, skaters have been plagued by unclear processes and inconsistent responses from copyright owners as to the permissions required to use music for their performances. The 2022 Beijing Games saw veteran U.S. pairs skaters Brandon Frazier and Alexa Knierim sued (alongside Comcast Corporation, NBC Universal Media, Peacock, and USA Network) for their use of a cover of “House of the Rising Sun” in their pairs short program. See Twelve Sixty LLC, Robert J. Marderosian, Aron M. Marderosian v. Comcast Corp., NBC Universal Media LLC, Peacock, USA Network, Alexa Knierim, Brandon Frazier, U.S. Figure Skating, and Does 1-10, No. 8:22-cv-00255, 2022 WL 504183 (C.D. Cal. Feb. 16, 2022). In that complaint, plaintiffs accused Knierim, Frazier, and the broadcasters of “profiting from the revenue the 2022 Winter Olympics generate” while “depriv[ing] plaintiff of what their creation… earns them” and “insult[ing] the integrity of [plaintiffs’] professional reputation.” Id., Compl. paras. 30-31. The suit settled out of court.
In stark contrast, U.S. skater Nathan Chen, gold medalist in the 2022 Beijing men’s individual competition, received effusive public congratulations from and even later collaborated with Sir Elton John, whose hit “Rocketman” accompanied Chen’s champion-making free skate.
These inconsistencies have resulted in a legal landscape with more twists and turns than a quad axel.
Infringement Under the Olympic Rings
Why do these copyright issues crop up on the eve of Olympic competition, adding the threat of legal action to one of the most critical moments in a figure skater’s career?
First, the Olympics bring periodic fanfare and media attention to sports that get overlooked in non-Olympic years, including figure skating. But for the skaters, who create programs each season and skate in a myriad of grand prix events before competing in annual national- and world-level competitions, these programs are often performed (and broadcast) dozens of times without incident. Copyright holders not dialed in to these uses appear to only discover the use before performances occur on the sport’s biggest stage, leading to eleventh-hour cease-and-desists ahead of the Olympics.
Second, skaters may believe they have cleared legal hurdles prior to competition, with the ISU attempting to provide streamlined processes (like use of the central platform “ClicknClear”) for skaters to obtain copyright permissions. Combined with the lack of enforcement throughout the preceding skating season, the skaters may be lulled into a false sense of security. However, as discussed further below, because Olympic figure skating implicates multiple rights in a work, a single permission from a centralized platform can be insufficient to avoid infringement entirely.
Moreover, Glenn’s and Knierim/Frazier’s experiences suggest that lesser-known or indie artists are more likely to withhold permissions, whose missed revenues from a worldwide Olympic broadcast may pose a more significant impact to them than to the likes of Elton John, Madonna, or the Spice Girls. That said, Guarino Sabaté’s scare over his Minions program (the rights to which are held by Illumination Entertainment, an exclusive partner of Universal Pictures) indicates that large companies are entering the enforcement fray.
Further, permissions come at a cost: more famous athletes could ostensibly afford expensive royalties for well-known music, while others may be unable to devote significant funds to their music choices. Neither the sport’s governing bodies nor the International Olympic Committee contribute to paying those fees. In a sport where entertainment factor and artistry is judged as stringently as technical prowess, this disparity invites additional questions about how the intricacies of intellectual property rights affect the fairness of the entire sport.
Which Rights Take the Ice?
An Olympic skater’s performance can involve several distinct property rights in each musical piece.
First is the performance right—the copyright holder’s exclusive right to perform the work publicly—which an organization like ASCAP or BMI may license for a piece of music to accompany a live performance or athletic routine. These rights are often conferred via a “blanket license” to a venue or broadcaster, allowing performances of many works without the need for individual licenses to each song.
Second is the synchronization right, which governs “syncing” a piece of music to a visual broadcast or stream. The license to use this right must be obtained from the copyright owner directly and may be expensive.
Finally, the master use right involves the owner of the “master recording” of a particular version of a song granting permission to use that individual recording. Obtaining this license can also be expensive.
Because several rights are at issue, skaters may fall prey to infringement claims due to a failure to obtain permission from all relevant stakeholders, believing instead that one clearance is enough. Adding even more complexity, copyright ownership or permission approvals for a certain work may be governed by private agreements between artists and record labels or other rights-holders. Understanding who-owns-what can be difficult to discern and navigate. Moreover, international competition invites questions concerning different intellectual property regimes, meaning that athletes must be aware of permissions necessary to perform in different countries throughout the world.
A Gold-Medal IP Strategy
The 2026 Olympic Games have underscored the urgent need for clear guidelines to help athletes navigate the nuances of intellectual property law well before they face a copyright infringement claim on the eve of Olympic competition. Since skaters appear to be personally responsible for obtaining proper licensing, recent events highlight the need for broader general education around copyright, performance rights, and the intersection of IP law with everyday uses of protected material.
As figure skating modernizes, athletes will have to consider IP strategy as part of their preparation for an upcoming season. This means identifying all rights-holders implicated by their chosen music, seeking permissions as early as possible, and documenting the permissions process thoroughly. Until a more centralized process exists for skaters, athletes and their teams will have to consider how choosing music according to their own financial and time constraints can become a key part of strategy in any given season.
While most of us are not landing triple lutzes in Milan, use of copyrighted material can affect athletes, businesses, and performers at all levels, especially as streaming and social media usage continues to boom. At BFV, we are ready to help you create a gold-medal strategy for your intellectual property usage needs.
Alyssa brings an instinct to advocate for those in business. A legal extraordinaire with a creative flair, Alyssa draws from her innovative mindset to create tailored solutions for clients. At BFV, Alyssa counsels clients through diverse business challenges and disputes, including business and real estate litigation and labor and employment and noncompete matters.
