ISU Junior Grand Prix in Slovakia

The ISU Junior Grand Prix in Slovakia – also known as Skate Slovakia – is an international figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the Slovak Figure Skating Association (Slovak: Slovensky Krasokorčuliarsky Zväz). 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.

ISU Junior Grand Prix in Slovakia
Status	Inactive
Genre	ISU Junior Grand Prix
Frequency	Occasional
Country	Slovakia
Inaugurated	1997
Previous event	2021
Organized by	Slovak Figure 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]

Viktoria Volchkova of Russia, the women's champion at the inaugural Junior Series competition in Slovakia

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]

Slovakia hosted its first Junior Grand Prix event in 1997 in Banská Bystrica. Ivan Dinev of Bulgaria won the men's event, Viktoria Volchkova of Russia won the women's event, Victoria Maksyuta and Vladislav Zhovnirski of Russia won the pairs event, and Flavia Ottaviani and Massimo Scali of Italy won the ice dance event.^[3]

The International Skating Union officially cancelled all scheduled Junior Grand Prix events for the 2020–21 season, which included the competition in Košice, 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]

Medalists

Natalie D'Alessandro and Bruce Waddell of Canada, the ice dance champions at the 2021 Junior Grand Prix competition in Slovakia

Men's singles

Men's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1997	Banská Bystrica	Ivan Dinev	Pavel Kersha	Juraj Sviatko	[3]
1998		Johnny Weir	Lukáš Rakowski	Matthew Davies	[5]
2002	Bratislava	Alexander Shubin	Nobunari Oda	Yannick Ponsero	[6]
2003		Andrei Griazev		Christopher Mabee	[7]
2005		Alexander Uspenski	Stephen Carriere	Philipp Tischendorf	[8]
2013	Košice	Keiji Tanaka	Zhang He	Mikhail Kolyada	[9]
2015	Bratislava	Roman Sadovsky	Vincent Zhou	Denis Margalik	[10]
2018		Stephen Gogolev	Mitsuki Sumoto	Daniel Grassl	[11]
2020	Košice	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[4]
2021		Kirill Sarnovskiy	Ilya Yablokov	William Annis	[12]

Women's singles

Women's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1997	Banská Bystrica	Viktoria Volchkova	Amber Corwin	Erin Pearl	[3]
1998			Tamara Dorofejev		[5]
2002	Bratislava	Lina Johansson	Alissa Czisny	Natalie Mecher	[6]
2003		Mai Asada	Katy Taylor	Olga Naidenova	[7]
2005		Yuna Kim	Aki Sawada	Elene Gedevanishvili	[8]
2013	Košice	Karen Chen	Alexandra Proklova	Riona Kato	[9]
2015	Bratislava	Polina Tsurskaya	Mai Mihara	Vivian Le	[10]
2018		Anna Shcherbakova	Anna Tarusina	You Young	[11]
2020	Košice	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[4]
2021		Veronika Zhilina	Sofia Muravieva	Adeliia Petrosian	[12]

Pairs

Oksana Nagalati and Maxim Bobrov of Russia originally won the bronze medal at the 2013 competition, but were later disqualified due to a positive doping test from Nagalati.^[13]

In 2021, Karina Safina and Luka Berulava became the first pairs team from Georgia to win a Junior Grand Prix medal.^[14]

Pairs event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1997	Banská Bystrica	Victoria Maksyuta Vladislav Zhovnirski	Sabrina Lefrançois Nicolas Osseland	Carissa Guild Andrew Muldoon	[3]
1998		Laura Handy Paul Binnebose	Jacinthe Larivière Lenny Faustino	Svetlana Nikolaeva Alexei Sokolov	[5]
2002	Bratislava	Julia Karbovskaya Sergei Slavnov	Chantal Poirier Jesse Sturdy	Tiffany Vise Laureano Ibarra	[6]
2003		Tatiana Kokoreva Egor Golovkin	Anastasia Kuzmina Stanislav Evdokimov	Amy Howerton Steven Pottenger	[7]
2005		Mariel Miller Rockne Brubaker	Valeria Simakova Anton Tokarev	Theresa Mailling Dominique Welsh	[8]
2013	Košice	Maria Vigalova Egor Zakroev	Lina Fedorova Maxim Miroshkin	Alessandra Cernuschi Filippo Ambrosini	[9]
2015	Bratislava	No pairs competition			[10]
2018		Anastasia Mishina Aleksandr Galliamov	Apollinariia Panfilova Dmitry Rylov	Kseniia Akhanteva Valerii Kolesov	[11]
2020	Košice	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[4]
2021		Anastasia Mukhortova Dmitry Evgenyev	Karina Safina Luka Berulava	Polina Kostiukovich Aleksei Briukhanov	[12]

Ice dance

Ice dance event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1997	Banská Bystrica	Flavia Ottaviani Massimo Scali	Olga Pogosian Alexandr Kirsanov	Olga Kudym Anton Tereschenko	[3]
1998		Natalia Romaniuta Daniil Barantsev	Kristina Kobaladze Oleg Voyko	Jill Vernekohl Jan Luggenhölscher	[5]
2002	Bratislava	Elena Romanovskaya Alexander Grachev	Anna Zadorozhniuk Sergei Verbillo	Siobhan Karam Joshua McGrath	[6]
2003				Morgan Matthews Maxim Zavozin	[7]
2005		Natalia Mikhailova Arkadi Sergeev	Anna Cappellini Luca Lanotte	Trina Pratt Todd Gilles	[8]
2013	Košice	Anna Yanovskaya Sergey Mozgov	Rachel Parsons Michael Parsons	Holly Moore Daniel Klaber	[9]
2015	Bratislava	Rachel Parsons Michael Parsons	Alla Loboda Pavel Drozd	Sofia Shevchenko Igor Eremenko	[10]
2018		Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva Nikita Nazarov	Elizaveta Shanaeva Devid Naryzhnyy	Eliana Gropman Ian Somerville	[11]
2020	Košice	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[4]
2021		Natalie D'Alessandro Bruce Waddell	Vasilisa Kaganovskaia Valeriy Angelopol	Sofya Tyutyunina Alexander Shustitskiy	[12]