Competitive advantage takes all forms. And in figure skating, Tchaikovsky may be the difference between gold and a grimace on the kiss-and-cry bench.

A skater's music selection defines the mood: The right tune sparks unison clapping from the crowd and gives an artistic flair to the technical elements. But can certain types of music enable a higher score?

Ahead of the ladies' short program on Wednesday, the Commissariat of Calculation sorted all 159 programs that have been performed so far in Sochi into six musical categories. (This doesn't include the short programs in ice dancing because the titles and composers of the music aren't listed.)

Gracie Gold of the United States Associated Press

By far the most popular music genre used by performers at Iceberg Skating Palace has been classical. We broke it down to isolate classical music by Russian composers in their own category. Prokofiev and his compatriots were used for 14% of the programs. By contrast, classical music by composers from anywhere else in the world were used for 32%. (Full disclosure: Several programs use dreamy, instrumental music you might find in yoga class and massage parlors. We included this in the classical genre. We hope to be forgiven for this crime against art.)

Other Russian composers show up again and again: Stravinsky, Borodin, Khachaturian. Almost all the biggies have been blared over the loudspeakers here. But there are non-Russian go-to composers, too, notably Camille Saint-Saëns, who has been used by several skaters, including men's bronze medalist Denis Ten in his short program.

Often the curtain goes up on Broadway tunes, with four different skaters opting for "Les Misérables." Another standout choice: shows choreographed by Bob Fosse—for example, Canada's Kaetlyn Osmond uses music from "Sweet Charity" in her short program. Any percussive music original to a region—from Ireland to Argentina—is guaranteed to start a unison clap in the crowd, and we've grouped those into a World Music category.

As for film? Selections range from songs on the soundtrack of Bond movie "Skyfall" to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The oddest pick was German skaters Maylin Wende and Daniel Wende, who used music from "Your Highness," a 2011 medieval stoner comedy.

As women's figure skating is set to kick off on Wednesday, WSJ's Pia Catton tells you which figure skaters to watch out for. Including everyone from Ashley Wagner to Yuna Kim.

Of course, some skaters create mixes that blend a world-renowned masterpiece with cheesy vocals or totally incongruous genres. But we've done our best to give them the benefit of the doubt and take only the good stuff.

So how do the genres stack up? According to our findings, programs set to Russian classical music came out ahead: In every category of competition, the average score of the programs was beaten by the average score of the programs with Russian music.

So cue the Tchaikovsky, as American skater Gracie Gold plans to do on Thursday night in her long program set to music from "Sleeping Beauty." When in Russia, it helps to skate Russian.

—Pia Catton and Jim Chairusmi

Write to Pia Catton at and Jim Chairusmi at