A politically charged dispute between the Olympic delegations of Azerbaijan and Armenia over figure skating music has been resolved after skating and IOC authorities reviewed the matter and the official program listing was amended.
The International Skating Union (ISU) said in a statement to the Guardian on Sunday that it had examined the matter with relevant stakeholders. The change follows a complaint from Azerbaijan's National Olympic Committee, which raised concerns over the Armenian pair of Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin's planned short program to 'Artsakh', a composition by musician Ara Gevorgyan. Artsakh is the Armenian name for the long-disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The listing on the ISU website for the pair skating short program now identifies the music as 'Music by Ara Gevorgyan', rather than naming the composition itself, according to the federation's published music registry for the 2025-26 season.
Akopova and Rakhmanin are scheduled to compete in the pairs short program on 15 February, with the free skate set for 16 February. They secured Armenia's first Olympic berth in pair skating since 2002 at the final qualifying event in Beijing.
The episode comes three months after Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a US-brokered peace agreement aimed at normalising relations, though disputes tied to Nagorno-Karabakh remain sensitive.
