Olympic Skater Receives Final Decision On 'Minions' Routine

Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate had hoped for a Hollywood ending in a rights struggle with the movie franchise.

Those mischievous Minions will have their Olympic moment after all.

Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate obtained the final approval he needed for his music on Friday, allowing the Spanish figure skater to perform his short program — set to a medley from the animated comedy from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment — when the men’s competition begins at the Milan Cortina Games on Tuesday night.

Like this article? Keep independent journalism alive. Support HuffPost.
Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate of Spain nearly had to ditch his routine at the last minute over rights issues.
Tomas-Llorenc Guarino Sabate of Spain nearly had to ditch his routine at the last minute over rights issues.  NurPhoto via Getty Images

Sabate had been performing the fan-favorite program all season, thinking he had the proper approval through a system called ClicknClear to use four cuts of Minions music. Last week, Universal Studios asked for him to provide more details on the music Sabate was using and the Minions-inspired outfit that he had been wearing.

He was able to quickly get approval for two cuts of music, and Sabate obtained a third by reaching out directly to the artist, a fellow Spaniard. The holdup was the song “Freedom” by the American musician and producer Pharrell Williams.

Sports: ICE Protests Prompt 3 U.S. Teams At Winter Olympics To Make Change: Report

That approval finally came Friday, about two hours before the Olympic figure skating program opened with the team event.

“I’m so happy to announce that we’ve done it! We’ve secured the licenses for all four songs, and I’ll be able to skate the Minions at the Olympic Games,” Sabate wrote on social media. “It hasn’t been an easy process, but the support of everyone who has followed my case has been key to keeping me motivated and optimistic these past few days.”
At one point, Sabate’s situation had grown so dire that he began practicing his Bee Gees-inspired short program from last year. But as news of his plight came out, and he began to get approval for some of the music, his hopes of performing Minions began to grow.

He even practiced the program, which opens with peels of laughter from the characters, during an early session Thursday. By the next morning, the Royal Spanish Ice Sports Federation announced that the copyright issue had been resolved.

Read the original on HuffPost

Category: General Sports