Nepela Memorial

The Nepela Memorial (Slovak: Memoriál Ondreja Nepelu) is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted in Bratislava, Slovakia, by the Slovak Figure Skating Association (Slovak: Slovensky Krasokorčuliarsky Zväz). The competition debuted in 1993 and is named in honor of Ondrej Nepela, a former Slovak figure skater who competed for Czechoslovakia and won the gold medal at the 1972 Winter Olympics. When the ISU launched the ISU Challenger Series in 2014, the Nepela Memorial – at that point called the Ondrej Nepela Trophy – was one of the inaugural competitions. The Nepela Memorial has been a Challenge Series every year since, except for 2020 and 2021, when the competitions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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.

Nepela Memorial
Status	Active
Genre	ISU Challenger Series
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Ondrej Nepela Arena
Location(s)	Bratislava
Country	Slovakia
Inaugurated	1993
Previous event	2024 Nepela Memorial
Next event	2025 Nepela Memorial
Organized by	Slovak Figure Skating Association

Three skaters are tied for winning the most Nepela Memorial titles in men's singles (with two each): Gabriele Frangipani of Italy, Mikhail Kolyada of Russia, and Kensuke Nakaniwa of Japan. Likewise, three skaters are tied for winning the most titles in women's singles (also with two each): Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia, Zuzana Paurova of Slovakia, and Júlia Sebestyén of Hungary. Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek of Poland hold the record in pair skating (with two each). Seven teams are tied for winning the most titles in ice dance (also with two each): Agata Błażowska and Marcin Kozubek of Poland, Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev or Russia, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain, Julia Golovina and Oleg Voyko of Ukraine, Nóra Hoffmann and Maxim Zavozin of Hungary, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov or Russia, and Nelli Zhiganshina and Alexander Gazsi of Germany.

History

Ondrej Nepela in 1972

The Nepela Memorial is named in honor of Ondrej Nepela, a Slovak figure skater who competed internationally for Czechoslovakia. He was the 1972 Olympic gold medalist, three-time World champion (1971–73), five-time European champion (1969–73), eight-time Czechoslovak champion (1965–69, 1971–73),^[1] and the Slovak athlete of the 20th century.^[2] He died in February 1989 at the age of 38.^[3][4]

The inaugural edition of the Nepela Memorial – then called the Ondrej Nepela Memorial – was held in 1993 in Bratislava. Michael Shmerkin of Israel won the men's event, Mojca Kopač of Slovenia won the women's event, Victoria Maksyuta and Vladislav Zhovnirski of Russia won the pairs event, and Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat of France won the ice dance event.

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.^[5] The Nepela Memorial has been a Challenger Series event every year since, except for 2020 and 2021, as the competition was cancelled both years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2025 Nepela Memorial is scheduled to take place 25–27 September in Bratislava.^[6]

Medalists

The 2024 Nepela Memorial champions: Daniel Grassl of Italy (men's singles); Yun Ah-sun of South Korea (women's singles); and Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain (ice dance)

CS: Challenger Series event

Men's singles

Men's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1993	Bratislava	Michael Shmerkin	Zsolt Kerekes	Unknown
1994		Zsolt Kerekes	Unknown
1995		Stanick Jeannette	Szabolcs Vidrai	Gabriel Monnier
1996		Roman Serov	Anthony Liu	Matthew Kessinger	[7]
1997		Anthony Liu	Alexei Kozlov	Patrick Schmit	[8]
1998		Laurent Tobel	Jayson Dénommée	Evgeni Pliuta	[9]
1999		Thierry Cerez	Stanick Jeannette	Frédéric Dambier	[10]
2000		Vincent Restencourt	Dmytro Dmytrenko	Silvio Smalun	[11]
2001		Stanislav Timchenko	Róbert Kažimír	Vitaliy Danylchenko	[12]
2002		Stéphane Lambiel	Stefan Lindemann	Gregor Urbas	[13]
2003		Naiden Borichev		Karel Zelenka	[14]
2004		Stefan Lindemann	Kevin van der Perren	Tristan Cousins	[15]
2005		Scott Smith		Tomáš Verner	[16]
2006		Gregor Urbas	Jordan Miller	Igor Macypura	[17]
2007		Kevin van der Perren	Nicholas LaRoche	Gregor Urbas	[18]
2008		Kensuke Nakaniwa	Paolo Bacchini	Jamal Othman	[19]
2009	Piešťany		Viktor Pfeifer		[20]
2010	Bratislava	Akio Sasaki	Kim Lucine	Anton Kovalevski	[21]
2011		Daisuke Murakami	Kevin van der Perren	Samuel Contesti	[22]
2012		Tatsuki Machida	Daisuke Murakami	Tomáš Verner	[23]
2013		Tomáš Verner	Takahito Mura	Peter Liebers	[24]
2014 CS		Stephen Carriere	Kim Jin-seo	Gordei Gorshkov	[25]
2015 CS		Jason Brown	Mikhail Kolyada		[26]
2016 CS		Sergei Voronov	Kevin Reynolds	Roman Savosin	[27]
2017 CS		Mikhail Kolyada	Sergei Voronov	Brendan Kerry	[28]
2018 CS				Keiji Tanaka	[29]
2019 CS		Dmitri Aliev	Matteo Rizzo	Deniss Vasiļjevs	[30]
2020		Competitions cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[31]
2021					[32]
2022 CS		Gabriele Frangipani	Cha Jun-hwan	Deniss Vasiļjevs	[33]
2023 CS			Nika Egadze	Mark Gorodnitsky	[34]
2024 CS		Daniel Grassl	Nikolaj Memola	Corey Circelli	[35]

Women's singles

Women's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1993	Bratislava	Mojca Kopač	Unknown
1994		Irena Zemanová	Unknown
1995		Krisztina Czakó	Vanessa Gusmeroli	Julia Lautowa
1996		Svetlana Bukareva	Tsvetelina Abrasheva	Angela Nikodinov	[7]
1997		Sabina Wojtala	Mojca Kopač	Tatiana Plusheva	[8]
1998		Zuzana Paurova		Christina Riedel	[9]
1999			Sabina Wojtala	Nina Sackerer	[10]
2000		Galina Maniachenko	Amber Corwin	Sabina Wojtala	[11]
2001		Júlia Sebestyén	Julia Lautowa	Mojca Kopač	[12]
2002		Carolina Kostner	Sarah Meier	Júlia Sebestyén	[13]
2003		Galina Maniachenko	Júlia Sebestyén	Julia Lautowa	[14]
2004		Viktória Pavuk	Jenna McCorkell	Zuzana Babiaková	[15]
2005		Júlia Sebestyén	Alissa Czisny	Amber Corwin	[16]
2006		Megan Williams-Stewart	Júlia Sebestyén	Ivana Reitmayerová	[17]
2007		Júlia Sebestyén	Michelle Boulos	Jenna McCorkell	[18]
2008		Ivana Reitmayerová	Tuğba Karademir	Sarah Hecken	[19]
2009	Piešťany	Mutsumi Takayama	Kerstin Frank	Isabelle Pieman	[20]
2010	Bratislava	Haruka Imai	Valentina Marchei	Patricia Glescic	[21]
2011		Maé-Bérénice Méité	Shoko Ishikawa	Léna Marrocco	[22]
2012		Jenna McCorkell	Monika Simančíková	Eliška Březinová	[23]
2013		Haruka Imai	Nikol Gosviani	Christina Gao	[24]
2014 CS		Roberta Rodeghiero	Joshi Helgesson	Ashley Cain	[25]
2015 CS		Evgenia Medvedeva	Anna Pogorilaya	Maria Artemieva	[26]
2016 CS		Maria Sotskova	Yulia Lipnitskaya	Mariah Bell	[27]
2017 CS		Evgenia Medvedeva	Rika Hongo	Elena Radionova	[28]
2018 CS		Rika Kihira	Elizabet Tursynbaeva	Stanislava Konstantinova	[29]
2019 CS		Alexandra Trusova	Kaori Sakamoto	Kim Ha-nul	[30]
2020		Competitions cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[31]
2021					[32]
2022 CS		Isabeau Levito	Lara Naki Gutmann	Lee Hae-in	[33]
2023 CS		Kim Chae-yeon	Lee Hae-in	Madeline Schizas	[34]
2024 CS		Yun Ah-sun	Mariia Seniuk	Lara Naki Gutmann	[35]

Pairs

Pairs event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1993	Bratislava	Unknown
1994		Unknown
1995		No pairs competitors
1996		Victoria Maksyuta Vladislav Zhovnirski	Naomi Grabow Benjamin Oberman	Veronika Joukalová Otto Dlabola	[7]
1997		Dorota Zagórska Mariusz Siudek	Kateřina Beránková Otto Dlabola	Maria Krasiltseva Aleksandr Chestnikh	[8]
1998		Kateřina Beránková Otto Dlabola	Oľga Beständigová Jozef Beständig	Katsjarina Danko Henadzi Yemelyanenko	[9]
1999		Victoria Maksyuta Vitali Dubina		No other competitors	[10]
2000		Dorota Zagórska Mariusz Siudek	Diana Rišková Vladimir Futáš	Jessica Miller Jeffrey Weiss	[11]
2001		Oľga Beständigová Jozef Beständig	Michela Cobisi Ruben De Pra	Michaela Krutská Marek Sedlmajer	[12]
2002		Maria Guerassimenko Vladimir Futáš	Andrea Vargová Marek Sedlmajer	No other competitors	[13]
2003		No pairs competitors			[14]
2004		Aljona Savchenko Robin Szolkowy	Milica Brozović Vladimir Futáš	No other competitors	[15]
2005		No pairs competitors			[16]
2006					[17]
2007		Mylène Brodeur John Mattatall	Becky Cosford Brian Shales	No other competitors	[18]
2008		No pairs competitors			[19]
2009	Piešťany	Maylin Hausch Daniel Wende	Ekaterina Sheremetieva Egor Chudin	Jessica Crenshaw Chad Tsagris	[20]
2010	Bratislava	No pairs competitors			[21]
2011		Tatiana Volosozhar Maxim Trankov	Stefania Berton Ondřej Hotárek	Liubov Ilyushechkina Nodari Maisuradze	[22]
2012		Anastasia Martiusheva Alexei Rogonov		Nicole Della Monica Matteo Guarise	[23]
2013		Gretchen Donlan Andrew Speroff	Anastasia Martiusheva Alexei Rogonov	Alexa Scimeca Chris Knierim	[24]
2014		No pairs competitors			[25]
2015 CS		Ksenia Stolbova Fedor Klimov	Kristina Astakhova Alexei Rogonov	Evgenia Tarasova Vladimir Morozov	[26]
2016 CS		Evgenia Tarasova Vladimir Morozov	Yuko Kavaguti Alexander Smirnov	Natalya Zabiyako Alexander Enbert	[27]
2017 CS		Natalya Zabiyako Alexander Enbert	Kristina Astakhova Alexei Rogonov	Alisa Efimova Alexander Korovin	[28]
2018		Ashley Cain Timothy LeDuc	Deanna Stellato Nathan Bartholomay	Lina Kudriavtseva Ilia Spiridonov	[29]
2019–24		No pairs competitors since 2018

Ice dance

Ice dance event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1993	Bratislava	Marina Anissina Gwendal Peizerat	Unknown
1994		Lynn Burton Duncan Lenard	Unknown
1995		Marianne Haguenauer Romain Haguenauer	Elena Sterzanova Rinat Farkhoutdinov	Anne Chaigneau Olivier Chapuis
1996		Kornélia Bárány András Rosnik	Alena Kramplová Ján Nerad	Olga Trubaeva Dmitry Iliin	[7]
1997		Agata Błażowska Marcin Kozubek	Zuzana Merzová Tomáš Morbacher	Angelika Führing Bruno Ellinger	[8]
1998		Zuzana Merzová Tomáš Morbacher	Zuzana Ďurkovská Marian Mesároš	No other competitors	[9]
1999		Agata Błażowska Marcin Kozubek	Kateřina Kovalová David Szurman	Nadine Lesaout Emmanuel Huet	[10]
2000		Véronique Delobel Olivier Chapuis	Pamela O'Connor Jonathon O'Dougherty	Marta Paoletti Alessando Italiano	[11]
2001		Julia Golovina Oleg Voyko	Veronika Morávková Jiří Procházka	Caroline Truong Sylvain Longchambon	[12]
2002				Pamela O'Connor Jonathon O'Dougherty	[13]
2003		No ice dance competitors			[14]
2004		Anna Zadorozhniuk Sergei Verbillo	Phillipa Towler-Green Phillip Poole	Ivana Dlhopolčeková Hynek Bílek	[15]
2005		Alla Beknazarova Vladimir Zuev	Olga Akimova Alexander Shakalov	Kamila Hájková David Vincour	[16]
2006		No ice dance competitors			[17]
2007		Isabelle Delobel Olivier Schoenfelder	Barbora Silná Dmitri Matsjuk	Anastasia Grebenkina Vazgen Azrojan	[18]
2008		Nelli Zhiganshina Alexander Gazsi	Carolina Hermann Daniel Hermann	Natalia Mikhailova Arkadi Sergeev	[19]
2009	Piešťany	Nóra Hoffmann Maxim Zavozin	Christina Beier William Beier	Kamila Hájková David Vincour	[20]
2010	Bratislava		Lucie Myslivečková Matěj Novák	Nelli Zhiganshina Alexander Gazsi	[21]
2011		Nelli Zhiganshina Alexander Gazsi	Lorenza Alessandrini Simone Vaturi	Julia Zlobina Alexei Sitnikov	[22]
2012		Kaitlyn Weaver Andrew Poje		Charlotte Aiken Josh Whidborne	[23]
2013		Penny Coomes Nicholas Buckland	Charlène Guignard Marco Fabbri	Tanja Kolbe Stefano Caruso	[24]
2014 CS		Maia Shibutani Alex Shibutani		Federica Testa Lukáš Csölley	[25]
2015 CS		Piper Gilles Paul Poirier	Penny Coomes Nicholas Buckland	Maia Shibutani Alex Shibutani	[26]
2016 CS		Ekaterina Bobrova Dmitri Soloviev	Madison Chock Evan Bates	Tiffany Zahorski Jonathan Guerreiro	[27]
2017 CS			Rachel Parsons Michael Parsons	Betina Popova Sergey Mozgov	[28]
2018 CS		Victoria Sinitsina Nikita Katsalapov	Lorraine McNamara Quinn Carpenter		[29]
2019 CS			Sara Hurtado Kirill Khaliavin	Lorraine McNamara Quinn Carpenter	[30]
2020		Competitions cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[31]
2021					[32]
2022 CS		Marjorie Lajoie Zachary Lagha	Eva Pate Logan Bye	Marie Dupayage Thomas Nabais	[33]
2023 CS		Lilah Fear Lewis Gibson	Diana Davis Gleb Smolkin	Natálie Taschlerová Filip Taschler	[34]
2024 CS				Olivia Smart Tim Dieck	[35]

Records

From left to right: Gabriele Frangipani of Italy and Mikhail Kolyada of Russia have both won two Nepela Memorial titles in men's singles.

From left to right: Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia and Júlia Sebestyén of Hungary have both won two Nepela Memorial titles in women's singles.

Records

Discipline	Most titles
	Skater(s)	No.	Years	Ref.
Men's singles	Gabriele Frangipani	2	2022–23	[36]
	Mikhail Kolyada	2	2017–18	[37]
	Kensuke Nakaniwa	2	2008–09	[38]
Women's singles	Evgenia Medvedeva	2	2005; 2007	[39]
	Zuzana Paurova	2	1998–99	[40]
	Júlia Sebestyén	2	2005; 2007	[41]
Pairs	Dorota Zagorska Mariusz Siudek	2	1997; 2000	[42]
Ice dance	Ekaterina Bobrova Dmitri Soloviev	2	2016–17	[43]
	Agata Błażowska Marcin Kozubek	2	1997; 1999	[44]
	Lilah Fear Lewis Gibson	2	2023–24	[45]
	Julia Golovina Oleg Voyko	2	2001–02	[46]
	Nóra Hoffmann Maxim Zavozin	2	2009–10	[47]
	Victoria Sinitsina Nikita Katsalapov	2	2018–19	[48]
	Nelli Zhiganshina Alexander Gazsi	2	2008; 2011	[49]

Cumulative medal count

Men's singles

Total number of Nepela Memorial medals in men's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	6	3	3	12
2	Japan	5	2	1	8
3	France	4	1	2	7
4	Italy	3	3	3	9
5	United States	3	2	1	6
6	Belgium	1	3	0	4
7	Germany	1	2	2	5
8	Hungary	1	2	0	3
9	Australia	1	1	1	3
10	Czech Republic	1	0	2	3
	Slovenia	1	0	2	3
	Switzerland	1	0	2	3
13	Israel	1	0	1	2
14	Bulgaria	1	0	0	1
15	Canada	0	2	0	2
	South Korea	0	2	0	2
17	Ukraine	0	1	3	4
18	Slovakia	0	1	1	2
19	Austria	0	1	0	1
	Estonia	0	1	0	1
	Georgia	0	1	0	1
	Monaco	0	1	0	1
23	Latvia	0	0	2	2
24	Great Britain	0	0	1	1
	Luxembourg	0	0	1	1
Totals (25 entries)		30	29	28	87

Women's singles

Total number of Nepela Memorial medals in women's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	5	4	4	13
2	Hungary	5	2	1	8
3	Japan	4	3	0	7
4	Slovakia	3	1	3	7
5	United States	2	3	5	10
6	Italy	2	2	1	5
7	South Korea	2	1	2	5
8	Ukraine	2	0	0	2
9	Slovenia	1	2	1	4
10	France	1	1	1	3
	Great Britain	1	1	1	3
	Poland	1	1	1	3
13	Czech Republic	1	0	1	2
14	Austria	0	2	2	4
15	Israel	0	1	0	1
	Kazakhstan	0	1	0	1
	Sweden	0	1	0	1
	Switzerland	0	1	0	1
	Turkey	0	1	0	1
20	Germany	0	0	3	3
21	Belgium	0	0	1	1
	Canada	0	0	1	1
Totals (22 entries)		30	28	28	86

Pairs

Total number of Nepela Memorial medals in pairs by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	7	5	5	17
2	Slovakia	2	4	0	6
3	United States	2	2	2	6
4	Germany	2	0	1	3
5	Poland	2	0	0	2
6	Czech Republic	1	2	2	5
7	Canada	1	1	0	2
8	Italy	0	3	1	4
9	Belarus	0	0	1	1
	Greece	0	0	1	1
Totals (10 entries)		17	17	13	47

Ice dance

Total number of Nepela Memorial medals in men's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain	4	3	2	9
2	Russia	4	1	4	9
3	France	4	0	4	8
4	Ukraine	4	0	1	5
5	Hungary	3	1	0	4
6	Canada	3	0	0	3
7	Germany	2	2	2	6
8	Poland	2	0	0	2
9	United States	1	4	2	7
10	Slovakia	1	2	2	5
11	Czech Republic	0	5	3	8
12	Italy	0	4	1	5
13	Georgia	0	2	0	2
14	Austria	0	1	1	2
	Spain	0	1	1	2
16	Armenia	0	0	1	1
	Azerbaijan	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		28	26	25	79

Total medals

Total number of Nepela Memorial medals by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia	22	13	16	51
2	Hungary	9	5	1	15
	Japan	9	5	1	15
4	France	9	2	7	18
5	United States	8	11	10	29
6	Slovakia	6	8	6	20
7	Ukraine	6	1	4	11
8	Italy	5	12	6	23
9	Germany	5	4	8	17
10	Great Britain	5	4	4	13
11	Poland	5	1	1	7
12	Canada	4	3	1	8
13	Czech Republic	3	7	8	18
14	South Korea	2	3	2	7
15	Slovenia	2	2	3	7
16	Belgium	1	3	1	5
17	Switzerland	1	1	2	4
18	Australia	1	1	1	3
	Israel	1	1	1	3
20	Bulgaria	1	0	0	1
21	Austria	0	4	3	7
22	Georgia	0	3	0	3
23	Spain	0	1	1	2
24	Estonia	0	1	0	1
	Kazakhstan	0	1	0	1
	Monaco	0	1	0	1
	Sweden	0	1	0	1
	Turkey	0	1	0	1
29	Latvia	0	0	2	2
30	Armenia	0	0	1	1
	Azerbaijan	0	0	1	1
	Belarus	0	0	1	1
	Greece	0	0	1	1
	Luxembourg	0	0	1	1
Totals (34 entries)		105	100	94	299