Golden Spin of Zagreb

Golden Spin of Zagreb
Status	Active
Genre	ISU Challenger Series
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Klizalište Velesajam Zagreb Fair
Location	Zagreb
Country	Yugoslavia (1967–90) Croatia (since 1992)
Inaugurated	1967
Previous event	2025 Golden Spin of Zagreb
Next event	2026 Golden Spin of Zagreb
Organized by	Croatian Skating Federation

The Golden Spin of Zagreb (Croatian: Zlatna pirueta Zagreba) is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the Croatian Skating Federation (Croatian: Hrvatski klizački savez) at the Klizalište Velesajam in Zagreb, Croatia.^[1] The competition debuted in 1967 when Croatia was part of Yugoslavia. It was suspended in 1991 owing to the Croatian War of Independence, but continued as a Croatian event beginning in 1992. When the ISU launched the Challenger Series in 2014, the Golden Spin of Zagreb was one of the inaugural competitions. It has been a Challenger Series event every year since, except for 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 World Standing points based on their results.

László Vajda of Hungary holds the record for winning the most Golden Spin of Zagreb titles in men's singles (with four), while Sanda Dubravčić of Yugoslavia holds the record in women's singles (with five). Three teams are tied for winning the most titles in pair skating (with two each): Sabine Baeß and Tassilo Thierbach of East Germany, Cornelia Haufe and Kersten Bellmann of East Germany, and Anastasia Martiusheva and Alexei Rogonov of Russia; Rogonov also won an additional title with a different partner. Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy hold the record in ice dance (with four).

The first installment of the Golden Spin of Zagreb – originally called the Zagreb International Figure Skating Championship (Croatian: Međunarodno prvenstvo Zagreba u umjetničkom klizanju) – was held in 1967 in Šalata, a neighborhood of Zagreb, in what was at the time Yugoslavia. The competition featured skaters from Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.^[2] The competition adopted the name "Golden Spin" (Croatian: Zlatna pirueta) in 1971.^[3] The breakup of Yugoslavia began with the secession of Slovenia and Croatia in June 1991,^[4] and no competition was held that year owing to the Croatian War of Independence.^[5] Despite some hesitation, the Croatian government was adamant that the Golden Spin of Zagreb be held in 1992, even while Croatia experienced intermittent combat with Yugoslavia. In addition to its jubilee status as the event's 25th anniversary, 1992 also marked the 750th anniversary of the establishment of Zagreb as a free royal city. Organizers hoped the competition would help dispel international perceptions of potential danger in travel to Croatia.^[6] While some nations declined to send athletes, the competition was held in 1992,^[7] and every year thereafter until the war ended. In 2001, the Golden Spin of Zagreb served as the qualifying competition for the 2002 Winter Olympics.^[8]

The Challenger Series was introduced in 2014. It is a series of international figure skating competitions sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU) and organized by ISU member nations. Its 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.^[9] The 2014 Golden Spin of Zagreb was one of the inaugural competitions.^[10] When an event is held as part of the Challenger Series, it must host at least three of the four disciplines (men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance) and representatives from at least ten different ISU member nations. The minimum number of entrants required for each discipline is eight skaters each in men's singles and women's singles, five teams in pair skating, and six teams in ice dance. Each ISU member nation is eligible to enter up to three skaters or teams per discipline in each competition, although the Croatian Skating Federation may enter an unlimited number of entrants in their own event.^[11]

In February 2016, the ISU declared that the Nebelhorn Trophy, the Finlandia Trophy, the Ondrej Nepela Trophy, and the Golden Spin of Zagreb would constitute a "core group" of Challenger Series events in recognition of their long-standing tradition.^[12] In April 2026, the ISU again announced that the Golden Spin of Zagreb would again be included in a core group of Challenger Series events, along with the Nebelhorn Trophy, the Nepela Memorial, and one competition from either Canada or the United States.^[13] It has been a Challenger Series event every year since the series' inception, except for 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[14]

The 2025 Golden Spin of Zagreb champions: Kévin Aymoz of France (men's singles); Bradie Tennell of the United States (women's singles); Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy (ice dance); and Audrey Shin and Balázs Nagy of the United States (pair skating)

CS: Challenger Series event

Men's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1967	Günter Anderl	Josef Schneider	Petr Starec	[15]
1968	Günter Zöller	Klaus Grimmelt	Günter Anderl	[16]
1969	Zoltán Horváth	Janusz Czakon	Stefano Bargauan	[17]
1970	Daniel Höner	László Vajda	Michael Glaubitz	[18]
1971	László Vajda	Mr. Masek		[3]
1972		Michael Glaubitz	Rudi Cerne	[19]
1973	Sergey Volkov	Zdeněk Pazdírek	Didier Gailhaguet	[20]
1974	László Vajda	Alexander Majorov	Christophe Boyadjian	[21]
1975			Miroslav Šoška	[22]
1976	František Pechar	Igor Lisovsky	Gerhard Haubmann	[23]
1977	Gert-Walter Gräbner	Gerhard Haubmann	Torsten Ohlow	[24]
1978	Jean-Christoph Simond	Helmut Kristofics-Binder	László Vajda	[25]
1979	Rudi Cerne	Reggie Raiford	Helmut Kristofics-Binder	[26]
1980	Hervé Pornet	Ralf Lewandowski	James Santee	[27]
1981	James Santee		Hervé Pornet	[28]
1982	Masaru Ogawa	Joachim Ehmann	Miljan Begović
1983	Scott Hamilton	Norbert Schramm	Makato Kano
1984	Scott Williams	Grzegorz Filipowski	Fernand Fedronic	[29]
1985	Heiko Fischer	John Filbig	Nils Köpp	[30]
1986	Viktor Petrenko	Philippe Roncoli	James Cygan	[31]
1987	Scott Kurttila	Cameron Medhurst	Martin Marceau	[32]
1988	Riko Krahnert	András Száraz	Norm Proft	[33]
1989	Sergei Dudakov	Craig Heath	Peter Johansson	[34]
1990	Aren Nielsen	Ralph Burghart	Igor Pashkevich	[35]
1991	Competition cancelled due to the Croatian War of Independence			[5]
1992	Axel Médéric	Tomislav Čižmešija	Luis Taifas	[7]
1993	Rodolphe Marechal	Rastislav Vnučko	Mr. Roublin	[36]
1994	Zsolt Kerekes	Igor Sinyutin	Rastislav Vnučko	[37]
1995	Marius Negrea	Jan Čejvan	Terrence Besnier	[38]
1996	Roman Serov	Szabolcs Vidrai	Anthony Liu	[39]
1997		Trifun Živanović	Szabolcs Vidrai	[40]
1998	Yevgeny Martynov	Sergei Rylov	Stefan Lindemann	[41]
1999	Roman Serov		Gabriel Monnier	[42]
2000	Ryan Bradley		Markus Leminen	[43]
2001	Sergei Davydov	Kevin van der Perren	Vakhtang Murvanidze	[44]
2002	Gheorghe Chiper	Alexei Vasilevski	Benjamin Miller	[45]
2003	Ma Xiaodong	Zoltán Tóth	Roman Serov	[46]
2004	Hugh Yik	Martin Liebers	Anton Kovalevski	[47]
2005	Gregor Urbas	Marc-André Craig	Ilia Klimkin	[48]
2006		Denis Leushin	Martin Liebers	[49]
2007		Adrian Schultheiss	Vladimir Uspenski	[50]
2008	Yasuharu Nanri	Samuel Contesti	Alexander Majorov	[51]
2009	Denis Ten	Artem Borodulin	Adrian Schultheiss	[52]
2010	Denis Leushin	Michal Březina	Anton Kovalevski	[53]
2011	Tatsuki Machida	Denis Ten	Ivan Bariev	[54]
2012	Vladislav Sesganov	Mark Shakhmatov	Justus Strid	[55]
2013	Sergei Voronov	Artur Gachinski	Ivan Righini	[56]
2014 CS	Denis Ten	Michal Březina	Konstantin Menshov	[57]
2015 CS		Adam Rippon	Adian Pitkeev	[58]
2016 CS	Alexei Bychenko	Daniel Samohin	Keegan Messing	[59]
2017 CS	Morisi Kvitelashvili	Alexei Bychenko	Artur Dmitriev Jr.	[60]
2018 CS	Jason Brown	Mikhail Kolyada	Alexander Samarin	[61]
2019 CS		Morisi Kvitelashvili	Makar Ignatov	[62]
2020	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[14]
2021 CS	Keegan Messing	Andrei Mozalev	Jimmy Ma	[63]
2022 CS	Camden Pulkinen	Matteo Rizzo	Mihhail Selevko	[64]
2023 CS	Jin Boyang	Mikhail Shaidorov	Aleksandr Selevko	[65]
2024 CS	Mihhail Selevko	Aleksandr Selevko	François Pitot	[66]
2025 CS	Kévin Aymoz	Arlet Levandi	Luc Economides	[67]

Women's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1967	Wilfriede Reiter	Zsófia Wagner	Iva Matysová	[68]
1968	Britt Elfving	Bärbel Fimmen	Maja Winter	[69]
1969	Zsófia Wagner	Brigitte Bergau	Anita Johansson	[70]
1970	Charlotte Walter	Steffi Knoll	Frigge Drzymalla	[18]
1971	Marion Weber	Zsuzsa Homolya	Ilka Spormann	[3]
1972	Birgit Süß	Manuela Bertelé	Frigge Drzymalla	[19]
1973	Anett Pötzsch	Zdenka Fiurašková	Susanne Altura	[20]
1974	Tatiana Rakomsa	Vera Burding	Yvette Stalová	[21]
1975	Lia Gabelaja	Gabriele Mechling	Iva Cibulková	[22]
1976	Carola Weißenberg	Lotta Crispin	Sanda Dubravčić	[23]
1977	Sanda Dubravčić	Belinda Coulthard	Liudmila Mineyeva	[24]
1978	Claudia Kristofics-Binder	Sanda Dubravčić	Katarina Witt	[25]
1979	Dagmar Lurz	Claudia Kristofics-Binder	Sanda Dubravčić	[26]
1980	Sanda Dubravčić	Priscilla Hill	Janina Wirth	[71]
1981		Nathalie Hildescheimer	Mercedes Roskam	[72]
1982		Natalia Ovchinnikova	Katrien Pauwels	[73]
1983		Rosalynn Sumners	Karin Telser	[74]
1984	Agnès Gosselin	Kelly Webster	Claudia Villiger	[29]
1985	Constanze Gensel	Manuela Tschupp	Heike Gobbers	[30]
1986	Caryn Kadavy	Ana Kondrasova	Željka Čižmešija	[31]
1987	Jeri Campbell	Charlene Wong	Katrien Pauwels	[32]
1988	Lisa Sargeant	Kelly Szmurlo	Anja Geissler	[33]
1989	Kelly Szmurlo	Dianne Takeuchi	Lily Lyoonjung Lee	[34]
1990	Julia Vorobieva	Anja Geissler	Tisha Walker	[35]
1991	Competition cancelled due to the Croatian War of Independence			[5]
1992	Melita Juratek	Ivana Jakupčević	Vanessa Gusméroli	[7]
1993	Julia Vorobieva	Ms. Usatova	Véronique Fleury	[36]
1994		Tomoko Imagawi	Barbara Maros	[37]
1995	Mojca Kopač	Julia Vorobieva	Ivana Jakupčević	[38]
1996		Joanne Carter	Sabina Wojtala	[39]
1997	Tatiana Malinina	Brittney McConn	Júlia Sebestyén	[40]
1998	Julia Soldatova	Júlia Sebestyén	Vanessa Gusméroli	[41]
1999	Viktoria Volchkova	Zuzana Paurová	Tamara Dorofejev	[42]
2000	Julia Soldatova	Kristina Oblasova		[75]
2001	Michelle Currie	Amber Corwin	Julia Lautowa	[44]
2002	Alisa Drei	Yebin Mok	Júlia Sebestyén	[45]
2003	Zuzana Babiaková	Diána Póth	Idora Hegel	[46]
2004	Idora Hegel	Galina Maniachenko	Diána Póth	[47]
2005	Alisa Drei	Meagan Duhamel	Silvia Fontana	[48]
2006	Nella Simaová	Tamar Katz	Alisa Drei	[49]
2007	Akiko Suzuki	Kiira Korpi	Katarina Gerboldt	[50]
2008	Júlia Sebestyén	Joshi Helgesson	Jenna McCorkell	[51]
2009	Shion Kokubun	Ekaterina Kozireva	Katarina Gerboldt	[52]
2010	Sonia Lafuente	Kako Tomotaki	Patricia Gleščič	[53]
2011	Adelina Sotnikova	Haruna Suzuki	Maria Artemieva	[54]
2012	Carolina Kostner	Kristina Zaseeva	Isadora Williams	[55]
2013	Yuna Kim	Miki Ando	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	[56]
2014 CS	Kiira Korpi	Maria Artemieva	Nicole Rajičová	[57]
2015 CS	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Elizabet Tursynbaeva	Karen Chen	[58]
2016 CS	Carolina Kostner	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Alena Leonova	[59]
2017 CS	Stanislava Konstantinova	Alisa Fedichkina	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	[60]
2018 CS	Bradie Tennell	Anastasiia Gubanova	Mariah Bell	[61]
2019 CS	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Viktoriia Safonova	Nicole Schott	[62]
2020	Competition cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic			[14]
2021 CS	Anastasiia Gubanova	Amber Glenn	Niina Petrõkina	[63]
2022 CS	Lindsay Thorngren	Bradie Tennell	Madeline Schizas	[64]
2023 CS	Sarina Joos	Amber Glenn	Starr Andrews	[65]
2024 CS	Alysa Liu	Nina Pinzarrone	Bradie Tennell	[66]
2025 CS	Bradie Tennell	Iida Karhunen	Sofia Samodelkina	[67]

From left to right: Anastasia Martiusheva and Alexei Rogonov of Russia won two Golden Spin of Zagreb titles in pair skating, while Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy won four Golden Spin of Zagreb titles in ice dance.

Total number of Golden Spin of Zagreb medals in men's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	9	5	4	18
2	Russia	6	8	8	22
3	Hungary	6	4	2	12
4	France	5	1	9	15
5	Soviet Union	3	3	1	7
	West Germany	3	3	1	7
7	Kazakhstan	3	2	0	5
8	Slovenia	3	1	0	4
9	Japan	3	0	1	4
10	East Germany	2	3	4	9
11	Canada	2	1	3	6
12	Romania	2	0	1	3
13	China	2	0	0	2
14	Austria	1	4	3	8
15	Czechoslovakia	1	2	2	5
	Estonia	1	2	2	5
17	Israel	1	2	1	4
18	Georgia	1	1	1	3
19	Ukraine	1	0	2	3
20	Belarus	1	0	0	1
	Switzerland	1	0	0	1
22	Azerbaijan	0	3	0	3
23	Italy	0	2	2	4
24	Czech Republic	0	2	0	2
	Poland	0	2	0	2
26	Sweden	0	1	3	4
27	Germany	0	1	2	3
28	Australia	0	1	1	2
	Slovakia	0	1	1	2
30	Belgium	0	1	0	1
	Croatia	0	1	0	1
32	Denmark	0	0	1	1
	Finland	0	0	1	1
	Yugoslavia	0	0	1	1
Totals (34 entries)		57	57	57	171

Total number of Golden Spin of Zagreb medals in women's singles by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	7	10	5	22
2	Russia	6	8	6	20
3	Yugoslavia	5	1	3	9
4	East Germany	5	1	2	8
5	Finland	3	2	1	6
	Soviet Union	3	2	1	6
7	Italy	3	1	2	6
8	Hungary	2	4	6	12
9	Japan	2	4	0	6
10	Canada	2	3	1	6
11	Austria	2	1	3	6
12	Croatia	2	1	2	5
13	Azerbaijan	2	1	0	3
14	Slovenia	2	0	1	3
15	West Germany	1	5	6	12
16	Sweden	1	2	1	4
17	France	1	1	3	5
18	Slovakia	1	1	1	3
	Switzerland	1	1	1	3
20	Belarus	1	1	0	2
21	South Korea	1	0	1	2
22	Czech Republic	1	0	0	1
	Georgia	1	0	0	1
	Spain	1	0	0	1
	Uzbekistan	1	0	0	1
26	Australia	0	2	0	2
27	Czechoslovakia	0	1	3	4
28	Belgium	0	1	2	3
29	Kazakhstan	0	1	1	2
30	Israel	0	1	0	1
	Ukraine	0	1	0	1
32	Brazil	0	0	1	1
	Estonia	0	0	1	1
	Germany	0	0	1	1
	Great Britain	0	0	1	1
	Poland	0	0	1	1
Totals (36 entries)		57	57	57	171