Nepela Memorial
The Nepela Memorial is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union, organized and hosted at the Ondrej Nepela Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia, by the Slovak Figure Skating Association. 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 Challenger Series event 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.
Three skaters are tied for winning the most Nepela Memorial titles in men's singles : 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 : 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. Seven teams are tied for winning the most titles in ice dance : Agata Błażowska and Marcin Kozubek of Poland, Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev of 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 of Russia, and Nelli Zhiganshina and Alexander Gazsi of Germany.
History
The inaugural edition of the Nepela Memorial – then called the Ondrej Nepela Memorial – was held in 1993 in Bratislava. The competition 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, five-time European champion, eight-time Czechoslovak national champion, and was named the Slovak Athlete of the Century in 2000. He died in February 1989 at the age of 38.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. The Nepela Memorial has been a Challenger Series event every year since, except for 2020 and 2021, when the competition was cancelled both years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.