The "Russian challenge" has been accepted: what to expect from our top skaters in St. Petersburg

On April 4, St. Petersburg will host the Russian Challenge, a vibrant show that traditionally ends the season in Russian figure skating. The main sports stars will take to the ice — Alexandra Trusova, Kamila Valieva, Alina Zagitova, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Peter Gumennik and others. This year, the audience will see 26 performances without thematic restrictions: the organizers gave the participants complete freedom in choosing images and ideas. We tell you about the main intrigues, rules and history of the tournament.

Special regulations

The title of the absolute winner of the Russian Challenge tournament will be awarded to the participant who receives the highest amount of points according to the following formula:

• 1/3 of the total amount: the average score of professionals from various fields of performing arts;
• 1/3 of the total amount: the average score of professionals professionally involved in figure skating;
• 1/3 of the total amount: the average score of the audience present in the hall (1 ticket to the tournament = 1 vote).

Special prizes will also be awarded.:

• Special Audience Award. It is awarded to the participant who received the highest average score among the audience in the hall.
• First place: sports couples, dance duets, men, women. It is awarded to the best athlete/duo who has received the highest average score in their sport.
• Special prize from the jury. It is awarded to the participant by the decision of one of the jury members. The jury member, having justified his choice, will be able to award a special prize to the participant who has shown the best qualities related to his professional activity on the ice, such as choreography, acting, musical solution, original costume or technical complexity.

The system was copied from last year's version of the tournament, however, the composition of the special prizes was slightly changed — last year Kondratyuk took not only the main prize of 5 million rubles, but also special prizes in all three separate categories (judges from figure skating, from art and the audience) — which was quite logical, given the high overall result. Back then, many skaters were surprised that Mark earned $8.75 million in one tournament, which is more than 50% of the total prize pool.

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History and favorites

The winner of the first two Russian Challenges, Olympic champion Alexei Yagudin, will not participate in the tournament, and now he is the host. In 2025, Dmitry Aliyev was second (29.24), and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva was third (28.27), who also took silver at the 2024 tournament. Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov are consistently climbing high on the Russian Challenge. They finished second in the first tournament and fourth last year.

At the same time, it is premature to name favorites. The Russian Challenge is an absolutely unpredictable tournament. A lot will depend on how much time certain skaters had to set their programs and how they turned out. Matvey Vetlugin and Ksenia Sinitsyna are traditionally good in such a non—technical format, and this season there are absolute favorites - Olympic participant Peter Gumennik is well-known, Kamila Valieva is returning, who just had time to stage, Alexandra Trusova and Makar Ignatov will participate again.

In fact, there are no more passing participants for the fourth year of the Russian Challenge. This means that if there is a breakthrough idea and it works out with execution, then anyone can shoot, especially considering that skaters have no thematic restrictions. This is what makes this event great.

Tournament participants

Dmitry Aliyev

Alexandra Boikova* — Dmitry Kozlovsky

Kamila Valieva

Tatiana Volosozhar — Maxim Trankov

Matvey Vetlugin

Peter Gumennik

Alina Zagitova

Maria Zakharova

Vasilisa Kaganovskaya — Maxim Nekrasov

Mark Kondratyuk

Alyona Kostornaya — George the Marten

Ekaterina Mironova — Evgeny Ustenko

Anastasia Mishina — Alexander Gallyamov

Andrey Mozalev (with the participation of Alice Dvoeglazova)

Sofia Muravyeva

Elizabeth the Beekeeper — Dario Cirizano

Sofia Samodurova

Daria Sadkova

Evgeny Semenenko

Victoria Sinitsina as Nikita Katsalapov

Ksenia Sinitsyna

Alexandra Stepanova — Ivan Bukin

Evgenia Tarasova — Vladimir Morozov

Alexandra Trusova — Makar Ignatov

Elizabeth Tuktamysheva

Anna Frolova

* Athletes who competed in the 2025/26 season are highlighted in bold.