The Nebelhorn Trophy is an annual international figure skating competition organized by the Deutsche Eislauf-Union and held in Oberstdorf, Germany. In most years, the event is part of the ISU Challenger Series. The competition is named after the Nebelhorn, a nearby mountain. Medals may be awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pair skating, and ice dance. The Fritz-Geiger-Memorial Trophy is presented to the team with the highest placements across all disciplines.
The Nebelhorn Trophy competition has been held annually since 1969 and is one of the oldest international figure skating competitions. In its early years, 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 and a team trophy presented to the country with the highest combined placements across both competitions. During the 1980s and early 1990s, before the establishment of a regular junior international competition circuit, younger skaters were often sent to these events as their first senior international competition assignments. International Figure Skating called the event "unique" because skaters are also awarded trophies along with their medals.[1]
In recent years, the Nebelhorn Trophy has also been used by the International Skating Union to experiment with new judging and scoring systems for figure skating. The 1997 competition was used as the test event for the switch from the ordinal system, the 2002 event was used for an initial test of the ISU Judging System which was then under development, and the 2003 event was the first competition where that system was used to determine the official results.[1] The 2006 event was used for a trial of using separate panels of judges for technical elements and program components. The competition also serves as a testing ground for judges working towards international status.[1]
The 2009 competition was used as the final qualifying opportunity for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2013 event served the same purpose for the 2014 Olympics and the 2018 Olympics.[1] The Nebelhorn Trophy became part of the ISU Challenger Series in the 2014–15 season.
