Classic Rock and Roll Olympics
The Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea have been rocking and rolling thanks to a recent change in the figure skating rules that now allows singles and pairs skaters…
GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA – FEBRUARY 20: Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada compete in the Figure Skating Ice Dance Free Dance on day eleven of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena on February 20, 2018 in Gangneung, South Korea. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea have been rocking and rolling thanks to a recent change in the figure skating rules that now allows singles and pairs skaters to use music with lyrics. Many skating pairs are hitting the ice to songs by artists like Kansas and the Rolling Stones.
The rule change came after 2014's Winter games in Sochi, Russia, in an attempt by the International Skating Union to satisfy skaters and woo younger fans to a sport that has suffered from waning interest.
Spain's Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin lit up the ice with Santana's "Oye Como Va." The song came up again in Canadian team Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, who danced a medley that included a samba (the Rolling Stones' “Sympathy for the Devil”), a rhumba (Eagles' “Hotel California”) and a cha-cha (“Oye Como Va").
Patrick Chan of Canada turned heads with his short program, which was skated to the tune of Kansas' "Dust in the Wind," and Japan’s Keiji Tanaka went with Gary Moore's "Memories." And Malaysia's Julian Yee's long program featured a James Brown medley of "It's a Man's Man's Mans's World," "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and "I Got You (I Feel Good)."
“If I show the amount of energy James Brown showed onstage, it will be something good for the audience and the judges to see,” Yee said when he qualified for the games.
