AMID THE many
challenges at this year’sanother: hurtling at 80 mph
on a one-of-a-kind track.
Beijing’s is 17% longer
than usual, with runs lasting
about 10 seconds more,
mitigating the advantage
fast starters get and putting
a premium on driving. And
steering won’t be easy: On
a standard track, sliders
might experience as many
as five g-forces (the force“A lot of us have been inmedalist and three-time U.S.
Olympian Chris Mazdzer. “All
of a sudden, that instinct
goes away.”BY STEPHANIE APSTEINGUIDE TO THE GAMES
and everybody has something different that they skate
well to. For me, it’s definitely a slower song.”
Many skaters spend the three years between Olympic
seasons experimenting with different types of music, so by
the time the next Winter Games arrive, they know which
songs and choreography best showcase their strengths.
The music selection process involves a lot of trial and
error, but ultimately, a crucial decision has to be made.
“I feel like 99% of the people who are watching skat-
ing at the Olympics, it’s either the first time they’ve
watched it in four years—or ever,” says Rippon. “How
do you encapsulate 20 years of work into four minutes
and show: This is who I am, this represents my career,
this represents me as a person?”
The approach for finding the right music is a bit dif-
ferent for each skater. Some lean on their coaches for
suggestions, while others spend hours scrolling through
Spotify for something that simply feels right. Bell says her
choreographer Shae-Lynn Bourne “has this huge vault
of music somewhere” that she often pulls from. It wasn’t
until last April that she stumbled upon her current short
program track, “River Flows in You,” by South Korean
composer Yiruma, while browsing YouTube for beginner
pieces to play on the piano she received for her birthday.
When searching for tunes, skaters also evaluate the
tempo, the way the music builds and f lows to create
tension or drama, and how choreographed moments of
rest and recovery fit into the piece. The judges’ impres-
sions are also considered, including potential reactions
to the lyrics: After a rule change in 2018, the competi-
tion in Beijing will mark only the second Olympics at
which skaters are permitted to use songs with words
in their routines.
But above all, says 2018 U.S. Olympian Vincent Zhou,
the skater must feel relaxed and at ease. In his case, for
the ’22 Games, that means returning to a familiar tune
from his bronze medal performance at the ’19 world
championships: “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,”
composed by Tan Dun.
“It just felt so comfortable right away, like putting on
an old-favorite pair of shoes,” says the 21-year-old from
San Jose, adding that his free skate music is not only
“culturally appropriate for the setting of the Olympics”
but also a ref lection of his Chinese American heritage.
Once skaters cut and finalize music to fit their programs,
they listen to it over and over every day during training.
Rippon estimates he heard his music “at least 2,000 times”
in the lead-up to his performance in PyeongChang, and,
though he retired from skating in November 2018, he
still gets “thrown back into those competitive mindsets”
when he hears his Olympic pieces.
“It becomes part of you,” Rippon says. “You rely on it.
You know those notes by heart.”