'The stars really aligned for me'
Music rights clearance has been a source of frustration for some Canadian skaters heading into the Olympic season. Roman Sadovsky feels 'very lucky' he wasn't one of them
We’ve all heard the nightmare stories by now. You read about at least one of them here. Let’s face it, music rights clearance has thrown a definite (triple) loop into skaters’ plans for the Olympic season.
So it was rather nice to finally hear a tale that went pretty painlessly, shall we say, by comparison. As Canadian men’s champion Roman Sadovsky put it, “the stars really aligned for me on this one.”
The 26-year-old from the Toronto suburb of Vaughan was referring to his new free program in particular with that statement but, as you’ll soon learn, it was rather smooth sailing in that area for his short program as well (both of them are new this season).
First, some generalities about the programs. Like most skaters of his calibre, Sadovsky prefers to keep the music choices under wraps for now (all will be revealed next month at Cranberry Cup, the Challenger Series event in the Boston area that is his season opener). But he adds, “the short and long have very different energies, I’ll say that much.”
“They’re almost the opposite in some ways and they complement each other really well. The long, especially, is different than what I did in the last couple years (in a recent Skate Ontario feature, he called that program “a play on a classical piece, and it’s a very happy program. Very pure, nostalgic.”).
What’s turned out to be a real bonus for him is the fact music clearance issues are long behind him. The free program needed just two weeks for clearance, he said, and while the short took a little longer due to multiple contributors being involved in the composition, that’s been in his rear view mirror for more than a month now.
“I think that’s really the key, because if you get hooked on a piece and you get denied and you’re ‘x’ amount of time away from the season, it starts to get a little bit stressful,” he said of those clearance rights being taken care of so soon. “I was worried in February about it, but then once everything got sorted out by May, I could see I was lucky. I’m going to say I feel very, very lucky.
“Skate Canada helped us a ton (with the process). For me, it seemed hard, but I actually got the approval — I’m hearing nightmares about it from other skaters, so that’s why I’m saying I cannot complain too much. It was difficult but we got it done and it seems random. It really seems random.”
What also helped is that Sadovsky knew exactly what music he wanted to accompany his new programs by February. “So I’d already started the ball moving and the long was really, really easy to turn around. It was like in two weeks that we got the approval,” he noted.
What can often sidetrack the process is the level of editing done to the original piece of music. Though he’d been advised to keep it simple to heighten his chances of getting the necessary clearance, Sadovsky chose to once again enlist the services of French composer Maxime Rodriguez to make the program more his own (the music for two of his recent long programs, “Chasing Cars” and “Angels,” were Rodriguez arrangements).
“Often I like to work with a composer to shake things up a little bit and make it a little bit more original and I was told upfront not to make things complicated because that tends to make things complicated,” said Sadovsky of the long program, which was choreographed by Mark Pillay. “When you start messing around (with editing), that’s a whole new world but I was like yeah, why not, I’m going to shoot my shot and crazy enough, (the original composers) were like, yep, you’re good to go.
“I’ve worked with (Rodriguez) in the past quite a few times for compositions and arrangements and just really making program more my own, not something that’s necessarily recycled all the time … He does a little bit of everything so yeah, he’s worked on a lot of projects with skaters. He’s worked with a lot of film scores, so he’s very experienced and really, really good at what he does.
“I give him a little guidance about what I’m feeling energy wise. I’ll say I want something that gives me this kind of feeling here, where I need to bridge between these two pieces, and then he does his magic and in about two weeks’ time, he comes back and he sends me the piece and I don’t really have any revisions, it sounds great.”
With the rights clearance issue so new for everyone last season, Sadovsky decided not to involve Rodriguez for either of his programs last season. But as mentioned earlier, he chose to roll the dice this season and, perhaps surprisingly to some, there were no issues at all.
“Last year, I had a fear because of what I was hearing when it came to editing music, I was worried about, what if we didn’t get the approval,” he explained. “And Skate Canada was saying please don’t do anything (complicated) right now. I said OK, I’ll keep it on the down low for now. I tried this year to push for it and they said OK, it’s going to be complicated. Don’t make it complicated, we can’t guarantee it.
“But then the artist of the piece came back and said, yes, go ahead, do whatever you like. (Skate Canada) mentioned that sometimes they want to see the revision and hear it and then sign off on it. But (the musician) did not care and said go ahead, do whatever you want. I’ve got to say the stars aligned for me on this one.”
The short program clearance took some extra time, but it wasn’t anything that concerned Sadovsky too much.
“The short (crafted by David Wilson), I got full approval maybe a month ago because there’s quite a few writers on it. I guess it was just like one by one, they were going through the approval process and I just got the last one about a month ago,” he said. “So that one took longer. I wasn’t too nervous; I am working with a third party that is helping us out to find the rights and they said don’t worry too much about it. It’ll just take some time. So we got that one in and then I was just training.”
And that’s the real beauty of all of this. For more than a month now, Sadovsky has been able to focus completely on training the programs at the York Region Training Centre in Richmond Hill, Ont., where he works under the direction of longtime coaches Tracey Wainman, a two-time Canadian women’s champion, and Gregor Filipowski, the 1989 World bronze medallist (when Canadian legend Kurt Browning won his first World title in Paris).
All of which is a good thing, given that his first competition is a mere three weeks away. For the second straight year, Sadovsky will start his season with the Challenger Series event at The Skating Club of Boston — he placed sixth at Cranberry Cup a year ago — and he feels the early start can give him the right head start into perhaps the most important season of his career.
“I really loved last year, I was able also to do Cranberry (an injury kept him from doing so in 2024). I really loved that I could start early and especially with new programs,” explained Sadovsky, who is also thankful for the early feedback on his work. “You get those notes very quickly … you’ll know right away ‘OK, this is not going to work here, this will work here.’ And already in August, you have some notes to go by instead of waiting until high-performance camp (at the end of August) or even later and then you’re applying these notes late, as opposed to just really getting it early.
“Any revisions you need to make, you can get them done before high-performance camp even, or before your second Challenger so that by the time the Grand Prix season starts (for him this year, that will include Skate Canada International and Finlandia Trophy), you just know what you’re doing, you’re comfortable and really just performing your best.”
Sadovsky also looks at the way last season ended, especially over the final four events when the calendar flipped to 2025, and sees some momentum he can grab onto and carry into the Olympic year. He’d dearly love to see a repeat of that campaign and the direction it took for him.
“The whole season last season, it just built slowly. From nationals to Four Continents, then Worlds, then World Team Trophy … everything just felt like a step in the right direction. Everything was just slowly coming together,” he said. “I had a little bit of issues midseason (he withdrew from Skate Canada after the short program because of a minor injury) but besides that, I was able to just really focus on really consistent and safe training, healthy training.
“That was the biggest focus after having a bit of injury issues. It was, I guess, a very gentle reminder. I’m just going carry that forward this season as well trusting my guns and then training smart. That’s the biggest takeaway at this stage and at my age in this sport. It really worked last year, so I just want to continue from where I left from there.”
The starting point for all of that, of course, was Sadovsky’s performance at the Canadian championships in January in Laval, Que., when he regained the national title he last won in 2020 (the gap of five years between the two wins is the longest in Canadian men’s skating history. Ironically his coach Wainman holds the same distinction for women).
“It’s an interesting accomplishment. Perhaps it would’ve been nice not to have such a long gap, but it was really nice that I could come to nationals and do really strong skates. I know we didn’t have a full competition at nationals, we were missing a lot of big names there. But really the focus was for me to focus on myself just do the best that I could and the energy after the long was just great, really great.
“The crowd was amazing in Laval; it was a smaller venue (a community rink at Place Bell) but very cozy. Lots of great energy. It could’ve been better, but I was really quite pleased with it, and it was a good momentum starter for that second half of the season.”
Unlike a year earlier in Montreal, Sadovsky came to 2025 Worlds as Canada’s lone entry (Wesley Chiu was there with him in 2024), but with the opportunity to earn a second provisional spot for his country for the Olympic season with a top 10 finish. And much as you’d think he’d rather not carry that burden too heavily into his skates … let’s just say, it was very front of mind.
“One hundred per cent, that was always on my mind. The short program was super nerve-wracking. I have done those shorts in the past where I wouldn’t qualify for the long. I had done a couple that season that would not have scored high enough to qualify,” he explained. “So I started playing this game in my brain, but no matter what you do, it starts to creep into your mind. And it’s not just expectation on yourself, you feel the expectation of others because it’s not necessarily a spot that’s yours, but you’re fighting for a spot. So it’s an abstract concept.
“I just really had to focus on my training and on the positive shorts that I did leading up to that event. I knew what my capabilities were, it was really just a moment of zoning in and really just staying focused and really trusting myself and what I could do. And the short was pretty strong. I had a little bit of a struggle on the last combination, but pretty strong short. I was way more relaxed for the long once the short was done because I knew from that point on, I was at least in a spot that we could maybe get two spots. If you don’t qualify for the short, you don’t get any spots, right?”
Safely through to the free skate after placing 15th in the short, Sadovsky felt like he could relax and just perform. What that did was allow him to earn a season-best score for his “Interstellar” long program (160.13), which also led to an overall total of 240.38, also tops for the campaign (both scores were also his highest internationally in three years).
“After the short, there was a huge weight off my shoulders and it was just OK, let’s try to chase for more (spots) and I tried my best to fight through that long to get as many points as possible,” he said. “I was pleased with the performance, I wasn’t quite enough for top 10; I would have had to do a little bit more in the short and a little bit more in the long. I would have also needed a little bit more help from someone else maybe not skating their best.
“At the end of the day, (achieving) that top 10 … it’s a deep event, so you can’t complain. It’s the best in the world, a deep event but overall, I was pleased with the skates and we have that one spot and it was just a great thing for my experience, a great thing for my confidence. But the short program, thinking about the spot was all that was on my mind.”
You may also recall that Sadovsky went through something similar back in 2021, when he was sent to Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany tasked with qualifying Canada a second spot for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games. He came through then and and that spot ended up being his when he placed second behind Keegan Messing at 2022 nationals in Ottawa (held in an empty building in the nation’s capital because of pandemic restrictions).
It’s that kind of high-pressure experience that Sadovsky believes will hold him in good stead as he embarks on a new season that figures to have several of those moments — especially in January, when Canadian nationals will make their way to the Slush Puppie Centre in Gatineau, Que., across the river from Ottawa.
“That was the first time I started competing for myself. That was the first one where I was like ‘oh, OK, this is something different,’” he said of the Nebelhorn experience in particular. “I have those experiences, so that’ll be to my advantage and it’s just going to be using those experiences as lessons and applying those lessons to these events. And just really relying on last year to help me go through this year, no matter what is hard.
“(Last season) was nerve-wracking at Four Continents, it was nerve-wracking for national championships, then very nerve-wracking at Worlds, so I've had a lot of these high-pressure competitions. This is just another one on the list. There will be a lot of adrenaline probably (at nationals) and I’m just really bracing myself, just kind of acknowledging that it’s going to be interesting.”
There’s another incentive in Gatineau — earning an opportunity for a better Olympic experience than in Beijing, when he was thrown into the Team Event at the last minute, then later placed 29th in the short program in the men’s event and didn’t qualify for the long.
It was a much more hectic schedule for him than he’d planned for, especially after the Canadian team learned that national men’s champion Keegan Messing had contracted COVID-19 and, by the time he finally tested negative, didn’t make it to Beijing in time for the Team Event.
“They told me on the (flight to Beijing), we think you’re going to do the Team Event because Keegan has COVID. It was not part of the schedule and it was a hard experience for me, definitely,” he said. “The Olympics were an amazing experience, but very challenging for me that time. That’s why I’m hungry to have a different experience in Italy.”
This time, he believes, the ability to handle the Team Event in particular is going to play into who lands the lone men’s spot for the Milan-Cortina Games (you could probably say the same for the women. With Canada being stronger in ice dance and pairs, the results from the men and women could well decide if a medal is any kind of possibility).
“In my interpretation, what I think it’s going to come down to is who (Skate Canada) thinks is the best candidate for the Team Event. That’s the biggest thing,” said Sadovsky. “They’re going to need to see strong programs and just consistency throughout the season.
“It just comes down to overall consistency, readiness, and scoring potential, I guess. For the Olympics, since it’s weighted (evenly), there’s definite medal potential there. I think we all know it, we all feel it and Canada knows it, so that’s why the selection criteria is a lot based on that Team Event.”
Being that he’s 26 years old, it’s fair to wonder whether this season might be Sadovsky’s competitive swan song in the sport. While skaters will generally tell you they put off such thoughts until after an Olympic season, Sadovsky admits “I think about it all the time.”
“I’m not 100 per cent sure. I’m going to let this season play out and then, depending on after this season, we’ll see, but I do think about it all the time.”
While he isn’t certain yet about a career path beyond skating, he does know he’s not ready to give up his involvement in the sport just yet.
“I don’t want to leave this sport entirely, that’s for sure,” he said. “I would like to coach, that’s definitely what I’d like to like to get into, and I am doing it part time (now) at my home club.”
Someday, that might lead him into dealing with things like music rights clearance from the other side of the boards. And with any luck, those stars will keep on aligning just right for him in that tricky area.
Spotlight on generation next
Many of this country’s biggest up-and-coming talents are in Gatineau this week for Skate Canada’s NextGen competition. It’s also being held at the Slush Puppie Centre, but in one of the facility’s smaller community rinks (the main arena where nationals will be held is a 4,000-seat venue).
At stake this week are spots on SC’s NextGen national team, which will be announced next week. It’s also the competition that goes a long way toward deciding which athletes Skate Canada will send to Junior Grand Prix events this season. The 2025 series begins with the Riga Cup in Latvia from Aug. 20-23, followed by an event the following weekend in Ankara, Türkiye. That’s followed by other stops in Italy, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Poland and Abu Dhabi, all leading up to the Junior Grand Prix Final from Dec. 4-7 in Nagoya, Japan.
Team selections for the early events are obviously the priority, said Andre Bourgeois, Skate Canada’s NextGen director. Expect to see those assignments to come out next week as well.
“There will be a significant number of (Junior Grand Prix) selections that will happen as a result of this (competition), but it doesn’t mean everybody’s selected,” he said in an interview during Skate Canada’s livestream of the competition. “But especially with the early Junior Grand Prix, we need to get those selections finalized.”
The NextGen competition wraps up with free skates in all disciplines on Saturday. The livestream for it all can be found here.