Ice Challenge

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

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 and Skate Austria 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 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 was part of the Challenger Series, skaters earned World Standing points based on their results.

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] Challenger Series events had to be scheduled between 1 August and 15 December. When an event was held as part of the Challenger Series, it had to host at least three of the four disciplines (men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance) and representatives from at least twelve different ISU member nations. The minimum number of entrants required for each discipline was: eight skaters each in men's singles and women's singles, five teams in pair skating, and six teams in ice dance.^[3] While ISU member nations were limited to sending a maximum of three skaters or teams per discipline to each event, Skate Austria could enter an unlimited number of entrants in their own event. Additionally, each skater or team was limited to participating in at most three Challenger Series events each season.^[4] 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.^[5]

The Ice Challenge has been held several times since 2014, but was a Challenger Series event only in 2015, 2021, 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 champions: Maxim Naumov of the United States (men's singles); Gabrielle Daleman of Canada (women's singles); Chelsea Liu and Ryan Bedard of the United States (pair skating); and Eva Pate and Logan Bye of the United States (ice dance)

CS: Challenger Series event

Men's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Tomáš Verner	Anton Kovalevski	Alban Préaubert	[8]
2010	Alexander Majorov	Douglas Razzano	Kristoffer Berntsson	[9]
2011	Stephen Carriere	Misha Ge	Viktor Pfeifer	[10]
2012	Peter Liebers	Douglas Razzano	Armin Mahbanoozadeh	[11]
2013	Denis Ten	Viktor Pfeifer	Gordei Gorshkov	[12]
2014 CS	Douglas Razzano	Alexander Samarin	Martin Rappe	[5]
2015 CS	Artur Dmitriev Jr.	Jason Brown	Mikhail Kolyada	[13]
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	[15]
2022 CS	Liam Kapeikis	Andreas Nordebäck	Nikita Starostin	[16]
2023 CS	Competition cancelled			[7]
2024	David Sedej	Anton Skoficz	No other competitors	[17]
2025	Maxim Naumov	Jacob Sanchez	Grayson Long	[18]

Women's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Kanako Murakami	Valentina Marchei	Amanda Dobbs	[8]
2010	Léna Marrocco	Natalia Popova	Sarah Hecken	[9]
2011	Caroline Zhang		Linnea Mellgren	[10]
2012	Jenna McCorkell	Isabelle Olsson	Monika Simančíková	[11]
2013	Courtney Hicks	Miki Ando	Nicole Rajičová	[12]
2014 CS	Hannah Miller	Isabelle Olsson	Ivett Tóth	[5]
2015 CS	Mirai Nagasu	Maria Artemieva	Tyler Pierce	[13]
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	[15]
2022 CS	Anna Pezzetta	Kaiya Ruiter	Kimmy Repond	[16]
2023 CS	Competition cancelled			[7]
2024	Anna Pezzetta	Julija Lovrencic	Sarah Marie Pesch	[17]
2025	Gabrielle Daleman	Kaiya Ruiter	Olga Mikutina	[18]

Junior men's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Franz Streubel	Kamil Białas	Timothy Leemann	[8]
2010	Stanislav Pertsov	Martin Rappe	Olexander Kucher	[9]
2011	Peter James Hallam	Kamil Dymowski	Nicola Todeschini	[10]
2012	Tomáš Kupka	Alexander Bjelde	Peter James Hallam	[11]
2013	Alexei Genya	Tomáš Kupka	Charles Tetar	[12]
2014	Dmitri Aliev	Byun Se-jong	Anton Kempf	[20]
2015	Petr Gumennik	Daniel Grassl	Catalin Dimitrescu	[21]
2016	No competition held
2017	Jonathan Hess	Gabriele Frangipani	Nik Folini	[22]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021	Naoki Rossi	Aleksa Rakic	Alp Eren Özkan	[19]
2022	Hugo Bostedt	Tobia Oellerer	Connor Bray	[16]
2023	No competition held			[23]
2024	Maksym Petrychenko	Hugo Willi Herrmann	Daniel Ruis	[17]
2025	William Chan	Maksym Petrychenko	Robert Wildt	[18]

Junior women's event medalists

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Ref.
2009	Gerli Liinamäe	Barbora Švédová	Anastasia Kistler	[8]
2010	Monika Simančíková	Isabelle Olsson	Lara Eisenbauer	[9]
2011	Kristina Zaseeva	Elin Hallberg	Gabriella Josefsson	[10]
2012	Sabrina Schulz	Minami Hanashiro	Nelma Hede	[11]
2013	Maria Herceg	Anna Dušková	Yasmine Kimiko Yamada	[12]
2014	Lea Johanna Dastich	Byun Ji-hyun	Anna Dušková	[24]
2015	Stanislava Konstantinova	Maria Perederova	Kristina Isaev	[21]
2016	No competition held
2017	Alessia Tornaghi	Stefanie Pesendorfer	Júlia Láng	[22]
2018–20	No competitions held
2021	Vivien Papp	Amalia Zelenjak	Varvara Kisel	[19]
2022	Sarina Joos	Polina Dzsumanyijazova	Marianne Must	[16]
2023	No competition held			[23]
2024	Vasilisa Bogomolova	Nela Snebergerova	Flora Marie Schaller	[17]
2025	Maria Eliise Kaljuvere	Sherry Zhang	Quinn Startek	[18]

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

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	4	4	2	10
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
16	Canada	0	0	1	1
Totals (16 entries)		12	12	11	35

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	Canada	1	2	0	3
5	Slovenia	1	1	0	2
6	France	1	0	0	1
	Great Britain	1	0	0	1
8	Sweden	0	2	1	3
9	Ukraine	0	2	0	2
10	Russia	0	1	0	1
	South Korea	0	1	0	1
12	Austria	0	0	2	2
	Germany	0	0	2	2
	Slovakia	0	0	2	2
15	Estonia	0	0	1	1
	Hungary	0	0	1	1
	Switzerland	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		12	12	12	36

Total number of Ice Challenge medals in pairs by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	7	5	2	14
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	Canada	0	0	1	1
	North Korea	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		12	10	10	32

Total number of Ice Challenge medals in ice dance by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	7	3	0	10
2	Italy	1	1	2	4
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	Canada	0	2	1	3
8	Denmark	0	2	0	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)		12	12	12	36

Total number of Ice Challenge medals by nation

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	22	12	6	40
2	Italy	4	3	4	11
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	Canada	1	4	3	8
10	Austria	1	3	4	8
11	Sweden	1	3	2	6
12	France	1	1	2	4
13	Czech Republic	1	1	0	2
	Georgia	1	1	0	2
15	Finland	1	0	2	3
16	Hungary	1	0	1	2
17	Kazakhstan	1	0	0	1
18	Ukraine	0	3	2	5
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)		48	46	45	139

• Official website
• Ice Challenge at Skating Scores
• Ice Challenge at Golden Skate
• Icechallenge Magazin 2022