Nebelhorn Trophy

Nebelhorn Trophy
Status	Active
Genre	ISU Challenger Series
Frequency	Annual
Venue	Eissportzentrum Oberstdorf
Location	Oberstdorf
Country	West Germany Germany
Inaugurated	1969
Previous event	2025 Nebelhorn Trophy
Next event	2026 Nebelhorn Trophy
Organized by	German Ice Skating Union

The Nebelhorn Trophy is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), organized and hosted by the German Ice Skating Union (German: Deutsche Eislauf-Union) at the Eissportzentrum Oberstdorf in Oberstdorf, Germany.^[1] The competition debuted in 1969 and is named after the Nebelhorn, a nearby mountain. It has occasionally served as the final qualifying event for the Winter Olympics. When the ISU launched the ISU Challenger Series in 2014, the Nebelhorn Trophy was one of the inaugural competitions. The Nebelhorn Trophy has been a Challenger Series every year since. Medals are 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.

Nobunari Oda of Japan holds the record for winning the most Nebelhorn Trophy titles in men's singles (with three). Four skaters are tied for winning the most titles in women's singles (with two each): Alissa Czisny of the United States, Carolina Kostner of Italy, Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada, and Irina Slutskaya of Russia. Two teams are tied for winning the most titles in pair skating (with four each): Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia, and Aljona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, although Savchenko has won an additional two titles with other partners. In addition, Minerva Fabienne Hase of Germany has won four Nebelhorn Trophy titles in pair skating, but with two different partners. Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain hold the record in ice dance (with three).

The Nebelhorn Trophy debuted in 1969 in Oberstdorf, in what was then West Germany, and is named after the nearby Nebelhorn mountain. Early on, it was paired with a now-defunct French event – the Grand Prix International St. Gervais – to form the Coupe des Alpes, with many of the same skaters participating in both events.^[2] A team trophy was occasionally presented to the country with the highest combined placements across both competitions.^[3][4]

The Nebelhorn Trophy has often been used by the International Skating Union to experiment with new judging and scoring systems for figure skating. In 1972, the ISU announced a new set of rules for single skating: skaters now had to perform three compulsory figures, a short program of compulsory moves, and the free skating program. The 1972 Nebelhorn Trophy was the first competition to feature these new requirements.^[2] The 1997 competition was used as the test event for a new system whereby each skater or team was ranked in comparison to the skaters or teams who had already competed.^[5] The 2002 Nebelhorn Trophy was used to test the new ISU Judging System, designed in reaction to the scandal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, while the event's actual results were still determined using the existing 6.0 system.^[6] The 2003 Nebelhorn Trophy was the first international skating competition to use the ISU Judging System to determine the official results.^[7] The 2009 Nebelhorn Trophy served as the final qualifying event for the 2010 Winter Olympics,^[8] as did the 2013 Nebelhorn Trophy for the 2014 Olympics,^[9] and the 2021 Nebelhorn Trophy for the 2022 Winter Olympics.^[10]

The ISU Challenger Series was introduced in 2014 as 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.^[11] The Nebelhorn Trophy was one of the inaugural events.^[12] 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 German Ice Skating Union may enter an unlimited number of entrants in their own event.^[13]

In February 2016, the ISU declared that the Nebelhorn Trophy, along with the Ondrej Nepela Memorial, the Finlandia Trophy, and the Golden Spin of Zagreb, would constitute a "core group" of Challenger Series events in recognition of their long-standing traditions.^[14] The Nebelhorn Trophy has been a Challenger Series event every year since. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Nebelhorn Trophy was held, but with extensive social distancing guidelines and procedures for the athletes and coaches in attendance, and without spectators.^[15]

The 2025 Nebelhorn Trophy champions: Stephen Gogolev of Canada (men's singles); Amber Glenn of the United States (women's singles); Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany (pair skating); and Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Great Britain (ice dance)

CS: Challenger Series event

Men's event medalists

Year	Gold[16]	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1969	Günter Anderl	Reinhard Ketterer	Klaus Grimmelt	[17]
1970	Klaus Grimmelt	John Curry	Michael Fish	[18]
1971	Erich Reifschneider	Gheorghe Fazekas	Rob Ouwerkerk	[19]
1972	Robert Bradshaw	Terry Kubicka	Erich Reifschneider	[2]
1973	John Carlow Jr.	Charles Tickner	Paul Cechmanek	[20]
1974	David Santee	Kevin Robertson		[21]
1975	Ted Barton	Ken Newfield	Harald Kuhn	[22]
1976	Fumio Igarashi	Scott Hamilton	Rudi Cerne	[23]
1977	Robert Wagenhoffer	Kurt Kurzinger	Gerd-Walter Gräbner	[24]
1978	Allen Schramm	Mark Cockerell	Gary Beacom
1979	Gordon Forbes	Vladimir Rashchetnov	Brian Boitano	[25]
1980	Tom Dickson	Brian Orser	Rudi Cerne	[26]
1981	Heiko Fischer	John Filbig	Kevin Hicks	[24]
1982	Leonardo Azzola	Bruno Delmaestro	James Cygan
1983	Heiko Fischer	Richard Zander	André Bourgeois	[4]
1984	Richard Zander	Craig Henderson	Leonid Kaznakov	[27]
1985		Doug Mattis	Laurent Depouilly	[28]
1986	Vitali Egorov	Erik Larson	Kurt Browning	[29]
1987	Todd Eldredge	Patrick Brault	Lars Dresler	[30]
1988	Aren Nielsen	Marcus Christensen	Christopher Mitchell	[31]
1989	Shepherd Clark	Richard Zander	Gleb Bokiy	[32]
1990	Michael Chack	Nicolas Pétorin	Vladimir Petrenko	[33]
1991	Ryan Hunka	Igor Pashkevich	Brent Frank	[34]
1992	David Liu		Axel Médéric	[35]
1993	Jeffrey Langdon	Michael Weiss	Jean-François Hébert	[36]
1994	Ilia Kulik	Shepherd Clark	Alexander Abt	[37]
1995	Takeshi Honda	Evgeni Pliuta	Yosuke Takeuchi	[38]
1996	Michael Weiss	Yamato Tamura	Igor Sinyutin	[39]
1997	Timothy Goebel	Evgeni Pliuta	Alexander Abt	[40]
1998	Trifun Zivanovic	Yevgeny Martynov	Vitaliy Danylchenko	[41]
1999	Ilia Klimkin	Vitaliy Danylchenko	Jayson Dénommée	[42]
2000	Anton Klykov	Derrick Delmore	Dmytro Dmytrenko	[43]
2001	Sergei Davydov	Jeffrey Buttle	Margus Hernits	[44]
2002		Benjamin Miller	Fedor Andreev	[45]
2003	Nicholas Young	Scott Smith	Nicholas LaRoche	[46]
2004	Marc-André Craig	Alexander Kondakov	Christopher Toland	[47]
2005	Stefan Lindemann	Noriyuki Kanzaki	Tomáš Verner	[48]
2006	Tomáš Verner	Parker Pennington	Vaughn Chipeur	[49]
2007	Michal Březina	Shaun Rogers	Tomáš Verner	[50]
2008	Nobunari Oda	Michal Březina	Yannick Ponsero	[51]
2009	Stéphane Lambiel	Ivan Tretiakov	Michal Březina	[52]
2010	Tatsuki Machida	Konstantin Menshov	Peter Liebers	[53]
2011	Yuzuru Hanyu	Michal Březina	Stephen Carriere	[54]
2012	Nobunari Oda	Konstantin Menshov	Keegan Messing	[55]
2013		Jason Brown	Jeremy Ten	[56]
2014 CS	Jason Brown	Michal Březina	Konstantin Menshov	[57]
2015 CS	Elladj Baldé	Max Aaron		[58]
2016 CS	Alexander Petrov	Jorik Hendrickx	Grant Hochstein	[59]
2017 CS	Jorik Hendrickx	Alexander Johnson	Alexander Majorov	[60]
2018 CS	Keegan Messing	Alexander Majorov	Artur Dmitriev	[61]
2019 CS	Makar Ignatov	Koshiro Shimada	Alexei Bychenko	[62]
2020 CS	Deniss Vasiljevs	Gabriele Frangipani	Nikolaj Majorov	[63]
2021 CS	Vincent Zhou	Adam Siao Him Fa	Mark Kondratiuk	[64]
2022 CS	Keegan Messing	Lee Si-hyeong	Roman Sadovsky	[65]
2023 CS	Adam Siao Him Fa	Kazuki Tomono	Koshiro Shimada	[66]
2024 CS	Sōta Yamamoto	Gabriele Frangipani	Deniss Vasiļjevs	[67]
2025 CS	Stephen Gogolev	Andrew Torgashev	Lukas Britschgi	[68]

Women's event medalists

Year	Gold[16]	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
1969	Ľudmila Bezáková	Rita Pokorski	Carmen Buchwald	[17]
1970	Rita Pokorski	Angelika Kräger	Karin Iten	[18]
1971	Dorothy Hamill	Gerti Schanderl	Angelika Kräger	[19]
1972	Wendy Burge	Isabel de Navarre	Patricia Shelley	[2]
1973	Kath Malmberg	Linda Fratianne	Gerti Schanderl	[20]
1974	Priscilla Hill	Barbara Smith	Petra Wagner	[21]
1975	Lisa-Marie Allen	Petra Wagner	Dagmar Lurz	[22]
1976	Garnet Ostermeier	Carrie Rugh	Deborah Albright	[23]
1977	Reiko Kobayashi	Sandy Lenz	Karin Riediger	[24]
1978	Editha Dotson	Corinna Tanski	Janet Morrissey
1979	Lynn Smith	Jackie Farrell	Karin Riediger	[25]
1980	Vikki de Vries	Alison Southwood	Elizabeth Manley	[26]
1981	Cornelia Tesch	Kristy Hogan	Stephanie Anderson	[24]
1982	Manuela Ruben	Kelley Webster	Natalia Ovchinnikova
1983	Staci McMullin	Barbara Butler	Karin Telser	[4]
1984	Debi Thomas	Juri Ozawa	Sara MacInnes	[27]
1985	Cornelia Tesch	Tracey Damigella	Joanne Conway	[28]
1986	Holly Cook	Cornelia Renner	Claudia Villiger	[29]
1987	Shannon Allison	Carola Wolff	Lindsay Fedosoff	[30]
1988	Tonia Kwiatkowski	Josée Chouinard	Patricia Neske	[31]
1989	Kyoko Ina	Surya Bonaly	Junko Yaginuma	[32]
1990	Surya Bonaly	Marina Kielmann	Maria Butyrskaya	[33]
1991	Kumiko Koiwai	Marie-Pierre Leray	Nadeza Kowalewskaja	[34]
1992	Simone Lang	Kumiko Koiwai	Angela Derochie	[35]
1993	Irina Slutskaya	Susan Humphreys	Lyudmyla Ivanova	[36]
1994		Shizuka Arakawa	Jennifer Karl	[37]
1995	Shizuka Arakawa	Lenka Kulovaná	Elena Ivanova	[38]
1996	Eva-Maria Fitze	Sydne Vogel	Karen Kwan	[39]
1997	Elena Liashenko	Olga Markova	Nadezhda Kanaeva	[40]
1998	Brittney McConn	Elena Ivanova	Veronika Dytrtová	[41]
1999	Elena Liashenko	Sanna-Maija Wiksten	Elina Kettunen	[42]
2000	Galina Maniachenko	Sarah Meier	Andrea Gardiner	[43]
2001	Ludmila Nelidina	Ann Patrice McDonough	Kristina Oblasova	[44]
2002	Carolina Kostner	Alisa Drei	Ludmila Nelidina	[45]
2003	Jennifer Don	Lesley Hawker	Olga Naidenova	[46]
2004	Louann Donovan	Alisa Drei	Mira Leung	[47]
2005	Elena Sokolova		Beatrisa Liang	[48]
2006	Beatrisa Liang	Arina Martinova	Katy Taylor	[49]
2007	Carolina Kostner	Megan Williams Stewart	Laura Lepistö	[50]
2008	Alissa Czisny	Laura Lepistö	Akiko Suzuki	[51]
2009		Kiira Korpi	Liu Yan	[52]
2010	Kiira Korpi	Viktoria Helgesson	Melissa Bulanhagui	[53]
2011	Mirai Nagasu	Elene Gedevanishvili	Joshi Helgesson	[54]
2012	Kaetlyn Osmond	Adelina Sotnikova	Haruka Imai	[55]
2013	Elena Radionova	Miki Ando	Ashley Cain	[56]
2014 CS	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Alena Leonova	Gracie Gold	[57]
2015 CS	Kaetlyn Osmond		Courtney Hicks	[58]
2016 CS	Mai Mihara	Elizaveta Tuktamysheva	Gabrielle Daleman	[59]
2017 CS	Kailani Craine	Matilda Algotsson	Alexia Paganini	[60]
2018 CS	Alina Zagitova	Mai Mihara	Loena Hendrickx	[61]
2019 CS	Mariah Bell	Kim Ye-lim	Nicole Schott	[62]
2020 CS	Eva-Lotta Kiibus	Alexia Paganini	Jenni Saarinen	[63]
2021 CS	Alysa Liu	Ekaterina Kurakova	Viktoriia Safonova	[64]
2022 CS	Loena Hendrickx	Wi Seo-yeong	Eva-Lotta Kiibus	[65]
2023 CS	Isabeau Levito	Kimmy Repond	Kim Min-chae	[66]
2024 CS	Elyce Lin-Gracey	Isabeau Levito	Hana Yoshida	[67]
2025 CS	Amber Glenn	Mone Chiba	Shin Ji-a	[68]