By Scottie Andrew, CNN
(CNN) — Minions may take Milan after all.
After a last-minute crisis over music-licensing issues, the Spanish figure skater Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté might be able to perform a routine inspired by the animated, gibberish-speaking Minions at the Winter Olympics, his coach Edoardo De Bernardis said. But he still faces a few more copyright hurdles before he can safely skate in his Minions overalls.
Sabaté has performed the Minions program throughout the 2025-2026 figure skating season. On Monday, however, Sabaté said he learned that the music for his Minions routine hadn’t been cleared for use in Olympic performance.
He had planned to skate to a medley of songs including the Minions’ cover of Universal Pictures’ famous fanfare and a Pharrell song that appeared in “Despicable Me 3.” A few of the medley songs were since been cleared for use, following public uproar over the possible de-Minion-ization of the event, but a few more tricky legal jumps remain.
With figure skating events due to begin on Friday, Sabaté and his team still don’t know know whether he’ll be able to skate as a Minion. “He was and still is very worried,” De Bernardis said in an email. “There is no time to create something new and strong.”
It’s unusual for a performer to learn so close to the start of the Olympics that the soundtrack to their routine hasn’t been cleared. But copyright issues have haunted the ice since a 2022 lawsuit accused two American Olympians of skating to a song without permission. This is the first Winter Games after that suit, and skaters still aren’t clear about why some songs aren’t permitted.
“It hasn’t been a thing that figure skaters have really had to think about for the many, many decades that figure skating has been around,” said Jackie Wong, a figure skating analyst who’s attended practices in Milan. “Nobody has a real, clear answer to this. The number of coaches, choreographers and skaters I’ve talked to — everybody seems to have a different kind of story about what they are supposed to do.”
Skaters are often left in song clearance limbo
Last week, Sabaté learned that his medley wasn’t permitted due to “copyright clearance isses,” even though he had submitted his music through the International Skating Union’s system months earlier and had competed with the program all season long.
“Finding this out last Friday, so close to the biggest competition of my life, was incredibly disappointing,” Sabaté wrote in an Instagram story. “Nevertheless, I will face this challenge head-on and do everything I can to make the best of the situation.”
De Bernardis said Sabaté didn’t receive a “clear and definitive answer” about using Minions music until three days before he left for Milan. The copyright holder also “had a problem with the concept of his costume,” De Bernardis said.
Then on Tuesday, the coach said, Sabaté received surprise approval to use some, but not all, of the songs in his medley. He’s still waiting to learn about clearance for the rest.
“This is a new procedure of getting the license,” De Bernardis said.
CNN has reached out to Sabaté and the Spanish Olympic Committee for comment, as well as Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment (the animation studio