During one of the first performances of the 2018 Winter Olympics figure skating program, Japanese pair skaters Miu Suzaki and Ryuichi Kihara took the ice to a song from the anime series Yuri!!! On Ice. The anime is, appropriately enough, a series about figure skating.
Suzaki and Kihara skated to the piano track, also called “Yuri On Ice,” which in the show is skated by protagonist Yuri Katsuki for his free skate program. The Japanese pair team has used the song as part of their program before, performing it multiple times in 2017, but this likely marks the first occasion that an anime song has been performed on the Olympic stage.
Yuri!!! On Ice ran for 12 episodes between October and December 2016, and received massive critical acclaim particularly for both its portrayal of the figure skating world and for its depiction of same-sex relationships.