Olympics Ice Skating Is for Cinephiles

The Beijing Winter Olympics skating programs have a cinematic soundtrack.

Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck as Harley Quinn and the Joker | Jurij Kodrun / Getty Images
Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck as Harley Quinn and the Joker | Jurij Kodrun / Getty Images

For those of us who have a more artistic sensibility, for whom half-pipe snowboarding and alpine skiing is exciting enough but not the heart-pounding full-body experience we're hoping for, there's one series of events that always delivers. Olympic figure skating and ice dancing is a sight to behold, assisted in no small part by the musical choices the skaters make before they take to the ice. It was thanks to a rule change at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that ice skaters were permitted to skate to music with lyrics, which gave us the raw sexual energy of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's unforgettable Moulin Rouge! ice-dancing routine four years ago.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics have kept the rule change, allowing for a more diverse and exciting array of musical choices—but something else is different this year, too. This year's class of skaters have proven themselves to be major cinephiles, their rhythmic accompaniment running the movie gamut from comic-book anti-heroes to Jedi knights from a galaxy far, far away and everything in between.

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Adam Siao Him Fa's Star Wars medley

In one of the most dramatic routines the Olympics has seen this year, Adam Siao Him Fa of France donned Anakin Skywalker's black Sith tunic and skated to a medley of music from the Dark Side, with Darth Vader's iconic heavy breathing segueing to a drum-and-bass remix of "The Imperial March." Only a Sith deals in the absolute fire of this performance, complete with graceful gestures timed to lightsaber sound effects. Siao Him Fa told Reuters that he liked the song choice because "it feels good that even people who are not figure-skating fans liked the program because they love Star Wars." (Video of his performance isn't available yet in the US, so above is a video of his program from last year's Nebelhorn Trophy competition.)

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Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck as the Joker and Harley Quinn

Straight out of the back room of a Spirit Halloween come German ice-dancing pair Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck, dressed as Harley Quinn and the Joker and skating to a medley of "edgy" songs, from a cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic" to the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army." Each song transition is bookended by lines from Jared Leto's take on the Clown Prince of Crime from Suicide Squad, and the whole thing begins with Dieck miming breaking Muller's neck. Cursed! But also cool, in a grungy sort of way.

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Karen Chen skates to "Requiem for a Dream"

Clint Mansell's score for Requiem for a Dream, particularly the memorable title track, is perhaps the most inescapable piece of music ever composed for a film. Famously retooled for a bunch of film trailers after the movie's release (including, hilariously, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), it's the sort of song you've heard a million times even if you haven't seen the movie it's from. It ended up being the perfect choice for American figure skater Karen Chen, who timed her soaring jumps and wide turns to the song's ever-increasing tension build.

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Vincent Zhou's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon selection

In a nod to both the location of this year's Winter Olympics and his own Chinese American heritage, Vincent Zhou set his free skate to the score of Ang Lee's wuxia epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, composed by Tan Dun. It's not the most instantly recognizable score in the world, but it's on heavy rotation on many cinephiles' soundtrack list, and it's so good in this program that you wonder why anyone skates to anything else. Be sure to peep the dragon curled around the left side of Zhou's costume as well.

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Madison Chock and Evan Bates' Daft Punk medley

The commentators describe the American skaters' silver medal-winning routine as an "astronaut" romancing an "extraterrestrial," but don't think we didn't notice Evan Bates' TRON: Legacy-inspired costume—fitting for a program set to Daft Punk's electronica. The two ice dancers skate to a collection of songs pulled from the French duo's Random Access Memories, including mostly instrumental tracks "Within" and "Contact," melodic choices that fit well with an ice-dancing routine. That said, we kinda want to see them put on a show to "Derezzed." Maybe get some neon Light Cycles in the mix?

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Emma Stefansky is a staff entertainment writer at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter @stefabsky.