Denis Ten Memorial Challenge

The Denis Ten Memorial Challenge is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the Denis Ten Foundation in Kazakhstan.^[1] The competition debuted in 2019 and is named in honor of Denis Ten, a former Kazakh figure skater who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics. The Denis Ten Memorial Challenge has been an ISU Challenger Series event every year since 2021. Medals may be awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance; and as part of the Challenger Series, skaters earn ISU World Standing points based on their results.

Denis Ten Memorial Challenge
Status	Active
Genre	ISU Challenger Series
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Barys Arena
Location(s)	Astana
Country	Kazakhstan
Inaugurated	2019
Previous event	2024 Denis Ten Memorial Challenge
Next event	2025 Denis Ten Memorial Challenge
Organized by	Denis Ten Foundation

History

Denis Ten with his silver medal at the 2016 Trophée de France

The Denis Ten Memorial Challenge is named in honor of Denis Ten, a former figure skater who competed internationally for Kazakhstan. He was the 2014 Winter Olympic bronze medalist, two-time World Championship medalist (silver in 2013; bronze in 2015), the 2015 Four Continents champion, and five-time Kazakh national champion. He was a member of the Astana Presidential Club, an organized that supported and developed high-achievement sports in Kazakhstan.^[2] Prior to Ten's success, Kazakhstan had almost no presence in international figure skating. After his bronze medal finish at the 2014 Winter Olympics, he became a national icon of sorts, responsible for a surge in popularity of figure skating in Kazakhstan. He was also part of Kazakhstan's bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.^[3] Ten was murdered on 19 July 2018 in Almaty by two carjackers who were attempting to steal his mirrors.^[4] The outpouring of condolences worldwide was enormous. Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, described Ten as "a great athlete and a great ambassador for his sport... Such a tragedy to lose him at such a young age."^[5] Arystanbek Muhamediuly, Kazakh Minister of Culture and Sport, said: "Denis Ten was an incredible figure skater, the legend of our sport, our pride."^[6]

One of Denis’s main goals was to develop figure skating in Kazakhstan and represent the country on the world sports arena. Therefore, we are very proud that our country has the honour of organising a tournament of this scale for the first time... We are very happy to give unforgettable emotions to all lovers of figure skating.

—Oksana Ten, mother of Denis Ten and founder of the Denis Ten Foundation^[7]

Organized by the Denis Ten Foundation, the inaugural edition of the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge was held in 2019 at the Halyk Arena in Almaty. Ten's mother Oksana wrote that "one of Denis's main goals was to develop figure skating in Kazakhstan."^[7] Morisi Kvitelashvili of Georgia won the inaugural men's event, Serafima Sakhanovich of Russia won the women's event, Lina Kudriavtseva and Ilia Spiridonov of Russia won the pairs event, and Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck of Germany won the ice dance event.^[8]

The competition was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[9] In 2021, the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge was the seventh event of the ISU Challenger Series,^[10] a series of international figure skating competitions sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU) and organized by ISU member nations. The objective is to ensure consistent organization and structure within a series of international competitions linked together, providing opportunities for senior-level skaters to compete at the international level and also earn ISU World Standing points.^[11] The Denis Ten Memorial Challenge has been a Challenger Series event every year since. The 2025 Denis Ten Memorial Challenge is scheduled to take place 1–4 October in Astana.^[12]

Senior medalists

The 2024 Denis Ten Memorial Challenge champions: Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan (men's singles); Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia (women's singles); and Natálie Taschlerová and Filip Taschler of the Czech Republic (ice dance)

CS: Challenger Series event

Men's singles

Men's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2019	Almaty	Morisi Kvitelashvili	Makar Ignatov	Daniel Albert Naurits	[8]
2020		Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[9]
2021 CS	Nur-Sultan	Petr Gumennik	Mark Kondratiuk	Andrei Mozalev	[13]
2022 CS	Almaty	Nika Egadze	Dias Jirenbayev	Vladimir Litvintsev	[14]
2023 CS	Astana	Lim Ju-heon	Nika Egadze	Kim Han-gil	[15]
2024 CS		Mikhail Shaidorov	Vladimir Litvintsev	Nika Egadze	[16]

Women's singles

Women's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2019	Almaty	Serafima Sakhanovich	Anastasiia Guliakova	Alexandra Feigin	[8]
2020		Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[9]
2021 CS	Nur-Sultan	Viktoriia Safonova	Ekaterina Ryabova	Anastasiia Shabotova	[13]
2022 CS	Almaty	Kim Min-chae	Anna Levkovets	Choi Da-bin	[14]
2023 CS	Astana	Mariia Seniuk	Choi Da-bin	Alina Urushadze	[15]
2024 CS		Anastasiia Gubanova	Sofia Samodelkina	Lara Naki Gutmann	[16]

Pairs

Pairs event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2019	Almaty	Lina Kudriavtseva Ilia Spiridonov	Laura Barquero Tòn Cónsul	Dorota Broda Pedro Betegón	[8]
2020		Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[9]
2021	Nur-Sultan	Karina Akopova Nikita Rakhmanin	Anastasia Mukhortova Dmitry Evgenyev	Yasmina Kadyrova Ivan Balchenko	[13]
2022–24	No pairs competitions since 2021

Ice dance

Ice dance event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2019	Almaty	Katharina Müller Tim Dieck	Adelina Galyavieva Louis Thauron	Maxine Weatherby Temirlan Yerzhanov	[8]
2020		Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[9]
2021 CS	Nur-Sultan	Anastasia Skoptsova Kirill Aleshin	Oleksandra Nazarova Maxim Nikitin	Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva Egor Bazin	[13]
2022 CS	Almaty	Kana Muramoto Daisuke Takahashi	Jennifer Janse van Rensburg Benjamin Steffan	Mariia Ignateva Danijil Szemko	[14]
2023 CS	Astana	Diana Davis Gleb Smolkin		Mariia Pinchuk Mykyta Pogorielov	[15]
2024 CS		Natálie Taschlerová Filip Taschler	Oona Brown Gage Brown	Alicia Fabbri Paul Ayer	[16]

Junior medalists

Men's singles

Junior men's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2019	Almaty	Daniil Samsonov	Artur Danielian	Mark Kondratyuk	[8]
2020		Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[9]
2021	Nur-Sultan	Vladislav Dikidzhi	Fedor Zonov	Semyon Soloviev	[13]
2022	Almaty	Artur Smagulov	Leonid Gitelman	Nikita Krivosheyev	[14]
2023	Astana	Choi Ha-bin	Konstantin Supatashvili	Ali Efe Günes	[15]
2024		Nikita Krivosheyev	Artur Smagulov	Temirlan Yakiyaev	[16]

Women's singles

Junior women's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2019	Almaty	Daria Usacheva	Maiia Khromykh	Maria Levushkina	[8]
2020		Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[9]
2021	Nur-Sultan	Sofia Samodelkina	Elizaveta Kulikova	Varvara Kisel	[13]
2022	Almaty	Inga Gurgenidze	Kim Yu-seong	Karina Issakova	[14]
2023	Astana		Anna Iushchenkova	Park Eun-bi	[15]
2024		Vasilisa Bogomolova	Veronika Kim	Anna Sannikova	[16]

Ice dance

Junior ice dance event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2019	Almaty	No junior ice dance competitors			[8]
2020		Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[9]
2021	Nur-Sultan	Vasilisa Kaganovskaia Valeriy Angelopol	Sofia Leonteva Daniil Gorelkin	Taisia Linchevskaya Timur Babaev-Smirnov	[13]
2022	Almaty	No junior ice dance competitors			[14]
2023	Astana	Darya Grimm Michail Savitskiy	Mariia Alieva Yehor Barshak	Mia Lee Mayer Davide Calderari	[15]
2024		No junior ice dance competitors			[16]

Cumulative medal count (senior medalists)

Men's singles

Total number of Denis Ten Memorial Challenge medals in men's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Georgia	2	1	1	4
2	Russia	1	2	2	5
3	Kazakhstan	1	1	0	2
4	South Korea	1	0	1	2
5	Azerbaijan	0	1	1	2
Totals (5 entries)		5	5	5	15

Women's singles

Total number of Denis Ten Memorial Challenge medals in women's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	1	1	1	3
	South Korea	1	1	1	3
3	Georgia	1	0	1	2
4	Belarus	1	0	0	1
	Israel	1	0	0	1
6	Kazakhstan	0	2	0	2
7	Azerbaijan	0	1	0	1
8	Italy	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Totals (9 entries)		5	5	5	15

Pairs

Total number of Denis Ten Memorial Challenge medals in pairs by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	2	1	1	4
2	Spain	0	1	1	2
Totals (2 entries)		2	2	2	6

Ice dance

Total number of Denis Ten Memorial Challenge medals in ice dance by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany	1	2	0	3
2	Russia	1	0	1	2
3	Czech Republic	1	0	0	1
	Georgia	1	0	0	1
	Japan	1	0	0	1
6	Ukraine	0	1	1	2
7	France	0	1	0	1
	United States	0	1	0	1
9	Canada	0	0	1	1
	Hungary	0	0	1	1
	Kazakhstan	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		5	5	5	15

Total medals

Total number of Denis Ten Memorial Challenge medals by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	5	4	5	14
2	Georgia	4	1	2	7
3	South Korea	2	1	2	5
4	Kazakhstan	1	3	1	5
5	Germany	1	2	0	3
6	Belarus	1	0	0	1
	Czech Republic	1	0	0	1
	Israel	1	0	0	1
	Japan	1	0	0	1
10	Azerbaijan	0	2	1	3
11	Ukraine	0	1	2	3
12	Spain	0	1	1	2
13	France	0	1	0	1
	United States	0	1	0	1
15	Canada	0	0	1	1
	Hungary	0	0	1	1
	Italy	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		17	17	17	51