Christabel Duah
This German Winter Olympic figure skater obviously set out to elicit strong emotions with her song choice, but outrage may not have been one of them.
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21-year-old Nicole Schott chose the theme song from the heart-wrenching 1993 Holocaust film “Schindler’s List” to accompany her during her performance Thursday night, and was met with backlash online from people calling her song choice a mistake.
John Williams wrote the Oscar-winning score for the Steven Spielberg-helmed film, which tells the true story of a German businessman who decided to turn his factory into a refuge for over 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. As a result, many people cited that having a German perform to the music due to its subject matter appropriate.
“Call me crazy but that doesn’t seem right,” wrote one bewildered viewer.
Just tuned into Olympic figure skating and the German figure skater is skating to the theme song from … Schindler’s List. No joke. Call me crazy but that doesn’t seem right.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 23, 2018
“A German figure skater using a song from Schindler’s List feels like something that should have been caught by one of the first 55,000 people it would have had to go through to get here,” shared another.
https://twitter.com/ScottHarrisMMA/status/966865315018788866
German gal ice skating to the theme for Schindler’s List just feels wrong. #Olympics #germany #schindlerslist
— Brian Sikorski (@wonderfultime) February 23, 2018
NO ONE SHOULD BE SKATING TO SCHINDLER'S LIST!!!!!!!
— Nancy Armour (@nrarmour) February 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/AnnDystopianFan/status/966872776240922624
Nicole Schott is a lovely & talented woman who was born more than 50 yrs post-Nazi era (original German Nazis, not present day US wannabes.) That said, if you are representing Germany in ladies figure skating, "Schindler's List" is a bad music choice.
— Timothy Horrigan (@TimothyHorrigan) February 23, 2018
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Although Schott only came in 18th place in the singles event, the criticism over the music overshadowed any positive aspects the performance.
Interestingly, this was not the first time the “Schindler’s List” theme has been used for figure skating choreography, or even by a German, according to Time Magazine. Katarina Witt, a fellow German, utilized the music mere months after the film’s premiere during a 1994 non-Olympic event while Russia’s Yulia Lipnitskaya, then 15 years old, used the score during her free program skate — and landed a gold medal — in the 2014 Sochi Games. Additionally, current Olympic commentator Johnny Weir skated to it 2003 at the Duluth Ice Form, but in the wake of the heavy derision, it stands to reason that skaters will be reconsidering selecting it in the future.
