ISU Junior Grand Prix in Latvia

The ISU Junior Grand Prix in Latvia – officially known as the Riga Cup – is an international figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the Latvian Skating Association (Latvian: Latvijas Slidošanas asociācija). It is held periodically as an event of the ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (JGP), a series of international competitions exclusively for junior-level skaters. Medals may be awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. Skaters earn points based on their results at the qualifying competitions each season, and the top skaters or teams in each discipline are invited to then compete at the Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.

Junior Grand Prix in Latvia
Status	Active
Genre	ISU Junior Grand Prix
Frequency	Occasional
Location(s)	Riga
Country	Latvia
Inaugurated	2011
Previous event	2024 Riga Cup
Next event	2025 Riga Cup
Organized by	Latvian Skating Association

History

The ISU Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating (JGP) was established by the International Skating Union (ISU) in 1997 and consists of a series of seven international figure skating competitions exclusively for junior-level skaters. The locations of the Junior Grand Prix events change every year. While all seven competitions feature the men's, women's, and ice dance events, only four competitions each season feature the pairs event. Skaters earn points based on their results each season, and the top skaters or teams in each discipline are then invited to compete at the Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.^[1]

Skaters are eligible to compete on the junior-level circuit if they are at least 13 years old before 1 July of the respective season, and if they have not yet turned 19 (for single skaters, and females in ice dance and pair skating) or 21 (for males in ice dance and pair skating).^[1] Competitors are chosen by their respective skating federations. The number of entries allotted to each ISU member nation in each discipline is determined by their results at the prior World Junior Figure Skating Championships.^[2]

Latvia hosted its first Junior Grand Prix competition in 2011 in Riga. Ryuju Hino of Japan won the men's event, Polina Shelepen of Russia won the women's event, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China won the pairs event, and Maria Nosulia and Yevhen Kholoniuk of Ukraine won the ice dance event.^[3]

The inaugural Junior Grand Prix in Latvia champions: Ryuju Hino of Japan (men's singles); Polina Shelepen of Russia (women's singles); Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China (pair skating); and Maria Nosulia and Yevhen Kholoniuk of Ukraine (ice dance)

The ISU officially cancelled all scheduled Junior Grand Prix events for the 2020–21 season, which included the 2020 Riga Cup, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, citing increased travel and entry requirements between countries and potentially excessive sanitary and health care costs for those hosting competitions.^[4]

The 2025 Riga Cup is scheduled to be held 20–23 August in Riga, and will be the first event in the 2025–26 Junior Grand Prix Series.^[5]

Medalists

The 2024 Riga Cup champions: Sena Takahashi of Japan (men's singles); Mao Shimada of Japan (women's singles); and Zhang Jiaxuan and Huang Yihang of China (pair skating).
Not pictured: Noemi Maria Tali and Noah Lafornara of Italy (ice dance)

Men's singles

Men's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2011	Ryuju Hino	Zhang He	Timothy Dolensky	[3]
2013	Jin Boyang	Adian Pitkeev	Shoma Uno	[6]
2015	Dmitri Aliev	Deniss Vasiļjevs	Alexei Krasnozhon	[7]
2017	Mitsuki Sumoto	Makar Ignatov	Tomoki Hiwatashi	[8]
2019	Andrei Mozalev	Lee Si-hyeong	Daniil Samsonov	[9]
2020	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[4]
2022	Nikolaj Memola	Rio Nakata	Rakhat Bralin	[10]
2024	Sena Takahashi	Lee Jae-keun	Shunsuke Nakamura	[11]

Women's singles

Women's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2011	Polina Shelepen	Li Zijun	Polina Agafonova	[3]
2013	Evgenia Medvedeva	Maria Sotskova	Karen Chen	[6]
2015	Maria Sotskova	Kaori Sakamoto	Choi Da-bin	[7]
2017	Daria Panenkova	Rika Kihira	Emmy Ma	[8]
2019	Lee Hae-in	Daria Usacheva	Rino Matsuike	[9]
2020	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[4]
2022	Shin Ji-a	Soho Lee	Ami Nakai	[10]
2024	Mao Shimada	Elina Goidina	Ko Na-yeon	[11]

Pairs

Pairs event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2011	Sui Wenjing Han Cong	Yu Xiaoyu Jin Yang	Margaret Purdy Michael Marinaro	[3]
2013	Yu Xiaoyu Jin Yang	Evgenia Tarasova Vladimir Morozov	Maria Vigalova Egor Zakroev	[6]
2015	Renata Oganesian Mark Bardei	Anastasia Poluianova Stepan Korotkov	Ekaterina Borisova Dmitry Sopot	[7]
2017	Apollinariia Panfilova Dmitry Rylov	Aleksandra Boikova Dmitrii Kozlovskii	Evelyn Walsh Trennt Michaud	[8]
2019	No pairs competition			[9]
2020	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[4]
2022	Cayla Smith Andy Deng	Ava Rae Kemp Yohnatan Elizarov	Ashlyn Schmitz Tristan Taylor	[10]
2024	Zhang Jiaxuan Huang Yihang	Jazmine Desrochers Kieran Thrasher	Olivia Flores Luke Wang	[11]

Ice dance

Ice dance event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2011	Maria Nosulia Yevhen Kholoniuk	Evgenia Kosigina Nikolai Moroshkin	Alexandra Aldridge Daniel Eaton	[3]
2013	Mackenzie Bent Garrett MacKeen	Lorraine McNamara Quinn Carpenter	Alla Loboda Pavel Drozd	[6]
2015	Betina Popova Yuri Vlasenko	Angélique Abachkina Louis Thauron	Sofia Evdokimova Egor Bazin	[7]
2017	Sofia Shevchenko Igor Eremenko	Anastasia Shpilevaya Grigory Smirnov	Caroline Green Gordon Green	[8]
2019	Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva Andrey Filatov	Maria Kazakova Georgy Reviya	Sofya Tyutyunina Alexander Shustitskiy	[9]
2020	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[4]
2022	Darya Grimm Michail Savitskiy	Sandrine Gauthier Quentin Thieren	Mariia Pinchuk Mykyta Pogorielov	[10]
2024	Noemi Maria Tali Noah Lafornara	Caroline Mullen Brendan Mullen	Darya Grimm Michail Savitskiy	[11]