ISU Junior Grand Prix in Germany

The ISU Junior Grand Prix in Germany – also known as the Blue Swords Cup – is an international figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the German Ice Skating Union (German: Deutsche Eislauf-Union). 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 Germany
Status	Inactive
Genre	ISU Junior Grand Prix
Frequency	Occasional
Country	Germany
Inaugurated	1997
Previous event	2016
Organized by	German Ice Skating Union

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, and if they have not yet turned 19 (for single skaters), 21 (for ice dancers and female pair skaters), or 23 (for male pair skaters). Competitors are chosen by their respective skating federations rather than by the ISU. 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]

The logo of Meissen Porzellan, which inspired the Blue Swords competition

The Blue Swords Cup (German: Pokal der Blauen Schwerter) was first held in 1961 in Chemnitz – then called Karl-Marx-Stadt – in East Germany. The name refers to the crossed swords logo of Meissen Porcelain, who sponsored the competition and sculpted the trophies that were awarded to the champions. In 1985, the Blue Swords became a junior-level event,^[3] and in 1997, it was one of the inaugural events of the Junior Grand Prix Series. Matthew Savoie and Amber Corwin, both of the United States, won the men's and women's events, respectively. Natalie Vlandis and Jered Guzman of the United States won the pairs event, and Oksana Potdykova and Denis Petukhov of Russia won the ice dance event.^[4]

Medalists

The 2016 Blue Swords Cup champions: Cha Jun-hwan of South Korea (men's singles); Anastasiia Gubanova of Russia (women's singles); Anastasia Mishina and Vladislav Mirzoev of Russia (pair skating); and Rachel Parsons and Michael Parsons of the United States (ice dance)

Men's singles

Men's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1997	Chemnitz	Matthew Savoie	Alexei Vasilevski	David Jäschke	[4]
1998		Vincent Restencourt	Stefan Lindemann	Scott Smith	[5]
2000		Stanislav Timchenko	Evan Lysacek	Maxime Duchemin	[6]
2002		Sergei Dobrin	Tomáš Verner	Nicholas LaRoche	[7]
2004		Jamal Othman	Alexander Uspenski	Princeton Kwong	[8]
2007		Brandon Mroz	Michal Březina	Takahito Mura	[9]
2009	Dresden	Song Nan	Artur Gachinski	Gordei Gorshkov	[10]
2010		Richard Dornbush	Gordei Gorshkov	Ryuichi Kihara	[11]
2012	Chemnitz	Maxim Kovtun	Shoma Uno	Alexander Samarin	[12]
2014	Dresden	Andrei Lazukin	Zhang He	Yaroslav Paniot	[13]
2016		Cha Jun-hwan	Conrad Orzel	Mitsuki Sumoto	[14]

Women's singles

Women's event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1997	Chemnitz	Amber Corwin	Julia Soldatova	Sara Lindroos	[4]
1998		Irina Nikolaeva	Anna Jurkiewicz	Sara Wheat	[5]
2000		Kristina Oblasova	Sara Wheat	Tamara Dorofejev	[6]
2002		Olga Naidenova	Adriana DeSanctis	Jenna McCorkell	[7]
2004		Kiira Korpi	Danielle Kahle	Katy Taylor	[8]
2007		Sarah Hecken	Rachael Flatt	Rumi Suizu	[9]
2009	Dresden	Kiri Baga	Angela Maxwell	Polina Agafonova	[10]
2010		Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Christina Gao	Ira Vannut	[11]
2012	Chemnitz	Anna Pogorilaya	Miyabi Oba	Maria Stavitskaia	[12]
2014	Dresden	Wakaba Higuchi	Elizabet Tursynbaeva	Alexandra Proklova	[13]
2016		Anastasiia Gubanova	Yuna Shiraiwa	Lim Eun-soo	[14]

Pairs

Pairs event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1997	Chemnitz	Natalie Vlandis Jered Guzman	Julia Obertas Dmytro Palamarchuk	Svetlana Nikolaeva Alexei Sokolov	[4]
1998		Victoria Maxiuta Vladislav Zhovnirski	Laura Handy Paul Binnebose	Alena Maltseva Oleg Popov	[5]
2000		Amanda Magarian Jered Guzman	Svetlana Nikolaeva Pavel Lebedev	Julia Shapiro Dmitri Khromin	[6]
2002		Jessica Dubé Samuel Tetrault	Maria Mukhortova Pavel Lebedev	Tiffany Stiegler Johnnie Stiegler	[7]
2004		Maria Mukhortova Maxim Trankov	Brittany Vise Nicholas Kole	Angelika Pylkina Niklas Hogner	[8]
2007		Jessica Rose Paetsch Jon Nuss	Vera Bazarova Yuri Larionov	Ksenia Krasilnikova Konstantin Bezmaternikh	[9]
2009	Dresden	Sui Wenjing Han Cong	Zhang Yue Wang Lei	Britney Simpson Nathan Miller	[10]
2010			Narumi Takahashi Mervin Tran	Anna Silaeva Artur Minchuk	[11]
2012	Chemnitz	Lina Fedorova Maxim Miroshkin	Maria Vigalova Egor Zakroev	Brittany Jones Ian Beharry	[12]
2014	Dresden	Julianne Séguin Charlie Bilodeau	Lina Fedorova Maxim Miroshkin	Chelsea Liu Brian Johnson	[13]
2016		Anastasia Mishina Vladislav Mirzoev	Anna Dušková Martin Bidař	Alina Ustimkina Nikita Volodin	[14]

Ice dance

Ice dance event medalists

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1997	Chemnitz	Oksana Potdykova Denis Petukhov	Federica Faiella Luciano Milo	Jamie Silverstein Justin Pekarek	[4]
1998		Jamie Silverstein Justin Pekarek		Tetyana Kurkudym Yuriy Kocherzhenko	[5]
2000		Tanith Belbin Benjamin Agosto	Miriam Steinel Vladimir Tsvetkov	Elena Romanovskaya Alexander Grachev	[6]
2002		Nóra Hoffmann Attila Elek	Mariana Kozlova Sergei Baranov	Alexandra Zaretsky Roman Zaretsky	[7]
2004		Natalia Mikhailova Arkadi Sergeev	Camilla Pistorello Luca Lanotte		[8]
2007		Kristina Gorshkova Vitali Butikov	Ekaterina Riazanova John Guerreiro	Madison Chock Greg Zuerlein	[9]
2009	Dresden	Ekaterina Pushkash Jonathan Guerreiro	Lorenza Alessandrini Simone Vaturi	Piper Gilles Zachary Donohue	[10]
2010		Evgenia Kosigina Nikolai Moroshkin	Marina Antipova Artem Kudashev	Charlotte Lichtman Dean Copely	[11]
2012	Chemnitz	Alexandra Stepanova Ivan Bukin	Kaitlin Hawayek Jean-Luc Baker	Daria Morozova Mikhail Zhirnov	[12]
2014	Dresden	Betina Popova Yuri Vlasenko	Lorraine McNamara Quinn Carpenter	Brianna Delmaestro Timothy Lum	[13]
2016		Rachel Parsons Michael Parsons	Anastasia Shpilevaya Grigory Smirnov	Arina Ushakova Maxim Nekrasov	[14]