The 1932 Olympics was the first time figure skating was set to music. It was
live music. The skaters didn't get to choose the songs, the orchestra just
played the same one over and over. Fast forward to today, music is very much the
heart of figure skating and custom-made for each performance. Oh, but
It wouldn't be a figure skating competition if there was
no Swan Lake, if there was no Don Quixote, if there was no Carmen.
This is Adam Rippon.
He's the 2016 national champion and 2018 Olympian.
he has ever competed in, he says there was at least one skate set
to Carmen.
I mean we love our Carmen what can I say?
And he's right. There was the
infamous battle of the Carmens in the 1988 Olympics.
German skater Katarina Witt and an American skater Debi Thomas both
performed their long program to Carmen.
It's time to compare Carmens.
I've skated
to Carmen so I mean like I'm guilty of my own charge.
So, what makes Carmen
Carmen is an opera written by a french composer
Georges Bizet about a gypsy girl named Carmen. So it's not just one song called
Carmen, it's actually dozens of songs and the most recognizable is probably...
But you probably have heard of this one...
this one...
and this one.
You get the point.
This is...
Carmen is often sassy and flirty and as you can see, lots of skaters take
advantage of that.
But her story ends tragically when she's stabbed to death by
her rejected lover.
With Carmen, Hugo and other music designers can explore a full range of emotions.
This structure allows skaters to start strong with jumps, grabbing people's attention.
In the slower section, skaters can show more of a vulnerable side and also
save energy for the big finale
For my short program I wanted to do something that was a really upbeat that
would get the crowd like on their feet, everybody clapping.
And then in the free skate I wanted to show like a softer side, I wanted to show
off my lyrical skating style.
That's why operas are so popular in figure skating. It's divided into
acts with a clear story line.
We're gluttons for punishment,
because you know we'll roll our eyes at somebody skating to Carmen and then on
the complete flipside of that, every year we'll go to our choreographer and we'll
be like what do you think of this? It's Carmen.
But this long era of Carmen might
be coming to an end.
In 2014 the International Skating Union
changed the music rules to allow skaters to skate to music with lyrics. It was an
attempt to appeal to a younger audience, so skaters like Jimmy Ma have traded in
Bizet for...
Lil' John.
When we were given the option to skate to music with lyrics,
it opened it up to any piece of music you could ever want to skate to.
Now with
more freedom and access to all kinds of music, they're looking for their new Carmen.
Will it be Lil' Jon? You never know.
I found throughout my whole entire career that if you see somebody doing
something that they really love to do,
that really translates so much, that even
if you're not a big fan of the music you just enjoy that person enjoying what
they're doing.
And maybe this rule change will spur a new era in skating, like 1932 Olympics
when the sport was still new.
And the official report quotes,