Ice Challenge

The Ice Challenge – held in 2021 as the Cup of Austria – is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the Grazer Eislaufverein in Graz, Austria. The competition debuted as an international event in 2009; prior to that, it was a regional event called the Leo-Scheu-Gedächtnislaufen, named in honor of Leo Scheu, the first president of the Grazer Eislaufverein. When the ISU launched the ISU Challenger Series in 2014, the Ice Challenge was one of the inaugural competitions. The Ice Challenge has been a Challenger Series event four times during its history as of 2025. Medals are awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance; and when the event is part of the Challenger Series, skaters earn ISU World Standing points based on their results.

Ice Challenge
Genre	International competition
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Eisstadion Liebenau
Location	Graz
Country	Austria
Inaugurated	2009
Next event	2025
Organized by	Grazer Eislaufverein

History

The Ice Challenge – originally called the Leo-Scheu-Gedächtnislaufen, named in honor of Leo Scheu, the first president of the Grazer Eislaufverein – began in 1971 and was only a regional competition, organized and hosted by the Grazer Eislaufverein in Graz, Austria. In 2006, the Leo-Scheu-Gedächtnislaufen was expanded to allow competitors from all of Austria. In 2008, the competition allowed international competitors for the first time, and in 2009, it received official endorsement by the International Skating Union (ISU) and was placed on their international calendar.^[1]

The ISU Challenger Series was introduced in 2014. It is a series of international figure skating competitions sanctioned by the International Skating Union 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.^[2] The Ice Challenge was one of the inaugural competitions. Douglas Razzano and Hannah Miller of the United States won the men's and women's events, respectively; Lina Fedorova and Maxim Miroshkin of Russia won the pairs event, and Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani of the United States won the ice dance event.^[3]

The Ice Challenge has been held several times since 2014, but was a Challenger Series event only in 2015,^[4] 2021,^[5] and 2022.^[6] It was scheduled to be a Challenger Series event in 2023 before the Grazer Eislaufverein cancelled the competition.^[7] The 2025 Ice Challenge is scheduled to be held on 5–9 November at the Eisstadion Liebenau in Graz.^[8]

Senior medalists

The 2024 Ice Challenge champions: Anna Pezzetta of Italy (women's singles); Gabriella Izzo and Luc Maierhofer of Austria (pair skating); and Holly Harris and Jason Chan of Australia (ice dance)
Not pictured: David Sedej of Slovenia (men's singles)

CS: Challenger Series event

Men's singles

Men's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Tomáš Verner	Anton Kovalevski	Alban Préaubert	[9]
2010	Alexander Majorov	Douglas Razzano	Kristoffer Berntsson	[10]
2011	Stephen Carriere	Misha Ge	Viktor Pfeifer	[11]
2012	Peter Liebers	Douglas Razzano	Armin Mahbanoozadeh	[12]
2013	Denis Ten	Viktor Pfeifer	Gordei Gorshkov	[13]
2014 CS	Douglas Razzano	Alexander Samarin	Martin Rappe	[3]
2015 CS	Artur Dmitriev Jr.	Jason Brown	Mikhail Kolyada	[4]
2016	No competition held
2017	Daniel Grassl	Javier Raya	Adrien Tesson	[14]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021 CS	Nika Egadze	Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda	Ilia Malinin	[5]
2022 CS	Liam Kapeikis	Andreas Nordebäck	Nikita Starostin	[6]
2023 CS	Competition cancelled			[7]
2024	David Sedej	Anton Skoficz	No other competitors	[15]
2025				[16]

Women's singles

Women's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Kanako Murakami	Valentina Marchei	Amanda Dobbs	[9]
2010	Léna Marrocco	Natalia Popova	Sarah Hecken	[10]
2011	Caroline Zhang		Linnea Mellgren	[11]
2012	Jenna McCorkell	Isabelle Olsson	Monika Simančíková	[12]
2013	Courtney Hicks	Miki Ando	Nicole Rajičová	[13]
2014 CS	Hannah Miller	Isabelle Olsson	Ivett Tóth	[3]
2015 CS	Mirai Nagasu	Maria Artemieva	Tyler Pierce	[4]
2016	No competition held
2017	Daša Grm	Giada Russo	Natalie Klotz	[14]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021 CS	Wakaba Higuchi	Park Yeon-jeong	Niina Petrõkina	[5]
2022 CS	Anna Pezzetta	Kaiya Ruiter	Kimmy Repond	[6]
2023 CS	Competition cancelled			[7]
2024	Anna Pezzetta	Julija Lovrencic	Sarah Marie Pesch	[15]
2025				[16]

Pairs

Pairs event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Caitlin Yankowskas John Coughlin	Chloe Katz Joseph Lynch	Stefania Berton Ondřej Hotárek	[9]
2010	Maylin Hausch Daniel Wende	Tiffany Vise Don Baldwin	Ji Hyang Ri Won Hyok Thae	[10]
2011	Andrea Poapst Chris Knierim	Mari Vartmann Aaron Van Cleave	Danielle Montalbano Evgeni Krasnopolski	[11]
2012	Marissa Castelli Simon Shnapir	Gretchen Donlan Andrew Speroff		[12]
2013	Gretchen Donlan Andrew Speroff	Maylin Hausch Daniel Wende	Tarah Kayne Daniel O'Shea	[13]
2014 CS	Lina Fedorova Maxim Miroshkin	Miriam Ziegler Severin Kiefer	Mari Vartmann Aaron Van Cleave	[3]
2015 CS	Alexa Scimeca Chris Knierim	Mari Vartmann Ruben Blommaert	Nicole Della Monica Matteo Guarise	[4]
2016	No competition held
2017	Lena Kreitmeier Anton Kempf	No other competitors		[14]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021	Campbell Young Lachlan Lewer-Parr	No other competitors		[17]
2022	Ellie Kam Daniel O'Shea	Nika Osipova Dmitry Epstein	Violetta Sierova Ivan Khobta	[6]
2023	Competition cancelled			[7]
2024	Gabriella Izzo Luc Maierhofer	Nica Digerness Mark Sadusky	Linzy Fitzpatrick Keyton Bearinger	[15]
2025				[16]

Ice dance

Ice dance event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Nóra Hoffmann Maxim Zavozin	Lynn Kriengkrairut Logan Giulietti-Schmitt	Christina Beier William Beier	[9]
2010	Louise Walden Owen Edwards	Allison Reed Otar Japaridze	Tanja Kolbe Stefano Caruso	[10]
2011	Lynn Kriengkrairut Logan Giulietti-Schmitt	Isabella Cannuscio Ian Lorello	Siobhan Heekin-Canedy Dmitri Dun	[11]
2012		Lucie Myslivečková Neil Brown	Ramona Elsener Florian Roost	[12]
2013	Anastasia Cannuscio Colin McManus	Laurence Fournier Beaudry Nikolaj Sørensen	Tanja Kolbe Stefano Caruso	[13]
2014 CS	Maia Shibutani Alex Shibutani		Barbora Silná Juri Kurakin	[3]
2015 CS	Danielle Thomas Daniel Eaton	Misato Komatsubara Andrea Fabbri	Olesia Karmi Max Lindholm	[4]
2016	No competition held
2017	Cecilia Törn Jussiville Partanen	Lilah Fear Lewis Gibson	Juulia Turkkila Matthias Versluis	[14]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021 CS	Charlène Guignard Marco Fabbri	Laurence Fournier Beaudry Nikolaj Sørensen	Olivia Smart Adrián Díaz	[5]
2022 CS	Emily Bratti Ian Somerville	Natacha Lagouge Arnaud Caffa	Lily Hensen Nathan Lickers	[6]
2023 CS	Competition cancelled			[7]
2024	Holly Harris Jason Chan	Amy Cui Jonathan Rogers	Leia Dozzi Pietro Papetti	[15]
2025				[16]

Junior medalists

Men's singles

Junior men's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Franz Streubel	Kamil Białas	Timothy Leemann	[9]
2010	Stanislav Pertsov	Martin Rappe	Olexander Kucher	[10]
2011	Peter James Hallam	Kamil Dymowski	Nicola Todeschini	[11]
2012	Tomáš Kupka	Alexander Bjelde	Peter James Hallam	[12]
2013	Alexei Genya	Tomáš Kupka	Charles Tetar	[13]
2014	Dmitri Aliev	Byun Se-jong	Anton Kempf	[18]
2015	Petr Gumennik	Daniel Grassl	Catalin Dimitrescu	[19]
2016	No competition held
2017	Jonathan Hess	Gabriele Frangipani	Nik Folini	[20]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021	Naoki Rossi	Aleksa Rakic	Alp Eren Özkan	[17]
2022	Hugo Bostedt	Tobia Oellerer	Connor Bray	[6]
2023	No competition held			[21]
2024	Maksym Petrychenko	Hugo Willi Herrmann	Daniel Ruis	[15]
2025				[16]

Women's singles

Junior women's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Gerli Liinamäe	Barbora Švédová	Anastasia Kistler	[9]
2010	Monika Simančíková	Isabelle Olsson	Lara Eisenbauer	[10]
2011	Kristina Zaseeva	Elin Hallberg	Gabriella Josefsson	[11]
2012	Sabrina Schulz	Minami Hanashiro	Nelma Hede	[12]
2013	Maria Herceg	Anna Dušková	Yasmine Kimiko Yamada	[13]
2014	Lea Johanna Dastich	Byun Ji-hyun	Anna Dušková	[22]
2015	Stanislava Konstantinova	Maria Perederova	Kristina Isaev	[19]
2016	No competition held
2017	Alessia Tornaghi	Stefanie Pesendorfer	Júlia Láng	[20]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021	Vivien Papp	Amalia Zelenjak	Varvara Kisel	[17]
2022	Sarina Joos	Polina Dzsumanyijazova	Marianne Must	[6]
2023	No competition held			[21]
2024	Vasilisa Bogomolova	Nela Snebergerova	Flora Marie Schaller	[15]
2025				[16]

Pairs

Junior pairs event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Klára Kadlecová Petr Bidař	Evgenia Krapivina Konstantin Medovikov	Catherine Clement James Hunt	[9]
2010	Rachel Epstein Dmitry Epstein	No other competitors		[10]
2011	Lina Fedorova Maxim Miroshkin	Magdalena Klatka Radosław Chruściński	Stina Martini Severin Kiefer	[11]
2012	Annabelle Prölß Ruben Blommaert	No other competitors		[12]
2013	Anna Dušková Martin Bidař			[13]
2014				[23]
2015	No junior pairs competitors			[19]
2016	No competition held
2017	Sara Carli Marco Pauletti	No other competitors		[20]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021	Oxana Vouillamoz Flavien Giniaux	Campbell Young Lachlan Lewer-Parr	No other competitors	[17]
2022	Ashlyn Schmitz Tristan Taylor	Sonja Löwenherz Robert Löwenherz		[6]
2023	No competition held			[21]
2024	Polina Polman Gabriel Renoldi	Ines Moudden Alejandro Lázaro García	Elisabetta Profaizer Matteo Libasse Mandelli	[15]
2025				[16]

Ice dance

Junior ice dance event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Stefanie Frohberg Tim Giesen	Maria Nosulia Evgeni Kholoniuk	Ramona Elsener Florian Roost	[9]
2010	Karolina Procházková Michal Češka	Lolita Yermak Alexander Liubchenko	Jana Čejková Alexandr Sinicyn	[10]
2011	Ekaterina Bugrov Vasili Rogov	Sophie Jones Richard Sharpe	Ria Schiffner Julian Salatzki	[11]
2012	Çağla Demirsal Berk Akalın	Julia Dolgikh Alexandr Prachanov	Alla Loboda Pavel Drozd	[12]
2013	Carolina Moscheni Ádám Lukács	Estelle Elizabeth Romain Le Gac	Christine Smith Simon Eisenbauer	[13]
2014		Sara Ghislandi Giona Ortenzi	Eva Khachaturian Andrei Bagin	[24]
2015	No junior ice dance competitors			[19]
2016	No competition held
2017	Sasha Fear George Waddell	Ria Schwendinger Valentin Wunderlich	Villö Marton Danijil Szemko	[20]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021	Natalie D'Alessandro Bruce Waddell	Kateřina Mrázková Daniel Mrázek	Sofía Val Nikita Vitryanyuk	[17]
2022	Kateřina Mrázková Daniel Mrázek	Anna Simova Kirill Aksenov	Anita Straub Andreas Straub	[6]
2023	No competition held			[21]
2024	Noemi Maria Tali Noah Lafornara	Ambre Perrier Gianesini Samuel Blanc Klaperman	Laura Finelli Massimiliano Bucciarelli	[15]
2025				[16]

Cumulative medal count (senior medalists)

Men's singles

Total number of Ice Challenge medals in men's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	3	3	2	8
2	Russia	1	1	2	4
3	Sweden	1	1	1	3
4	Germany	1	0	2	3
5	Czech Republic	1	0	0	1
	Georgia	1	0	0	1
	Italy	1	0	0	1
	Kazakhstan	1	0	0	1
	Slovenia	1	0	0	1
10	Austria	0	2	1	3
11	Japan	0	1	0	1
	Spain	0	1	0	1
	Ukraine	0	1	0	1
	Uzbekistan	0	1	0	1
15	France	0	0	2	2
Totals (15 entries)		11	11	10	32

Women's singles

Total number of Ice Challenge medals in women's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	4	0	2	6
2	Italy	2	2	0	4
3	Japan	2	1	0	3
4	Slovenia	1	1	0	2
5	France	1	0	0	1
	Great Britain	1	0	0	1
7	Sweden	0	2	1	3
8	Ukraine	0	2	0	2
9	Canada	0	1	0	1
	Russia	0	1	0	1
	South Korea	0	1	0	1
12	Germany	0	0	2	2
	Slovakia	0	0	2	2
14	Austria	0	0	1	1
	Estonia	0	0	1	1
	Hungary	0	0	1	1
	Switzerland	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		11	11	11	33

Pairs

Total number of Ice Challenge medals in pairs by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	6	4	2	12
2	Germany	2	3	1	6
3	Austria	1	1	0	2
4	Australia	1	0	0	1
	Russia	1	0	0	1
6	Netherlands	0	1	0	1
7	Israel	0	0	2	2
	Italy	0	0	2	2
9	North Korea	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Totals (10 entries)		11	9	9	29

Ice dance

Total number of Ice Challenge medals in ice dance by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	6	3	0	9
2	Italy	1	1	1	3
3	Great Britain	1	1	0	2
4	Finland	1	0	2	3
5	Australia	1	0	0	1
	Hungary	1	0	0	1
7	Denmark	0	2	0	2
8	Canada	0	1	1	2
9	Czech Republic	0	1	0	1
	France	0	1	0	1
	Georgia	0	1	0	1
12	Germany	0	0	3	3
13	Austria	0	0	1	1
	Spain	0	0	1	1
	Switzerland	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Totals (16 entries)		11	11	11	33

Total medals

Total number of Ice Challenge medals by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	19	10	6	35
2	Italy	4	3	3	10
3	Germany	3	3	8	14
4	Russia	2	2	2	6
5	Japan	2	2	0	4
6	Great Britain	2	1	0	3
	Slovenia	2	1	0	3
8	Australia	2	0	0	2
9	Austria	1	3	3	7
10	Sweden	1	3	2	6
11	France	1	1	2	4
12	Czech Republic	1	1	0	2
	Georgia	1	1	0	2
14	Finland	1	0	2	3
15	Hungary	1	0	1	2
16	Kazakhstan	1	0	0	1
17	Ukraine	0	3	2	5
18	Canada	0	2	1	3
19	Denmark	0	2	0	2
20	Spain	0	1	1	2
21	Netherlands	0	1	0	1
	South Korea	0	1	0	1
	Uzbekistan	0	1	0	1
24	Israel	0	0	2	2
	Slovakia	0	0	2	2
	Switzerland	0	0	2	2
27	Estonia	0	0	1	1
	North Korea	0	0	1	1
Totals (28 entries)		44	42	41	127