Santa Claus Cup again in 2024!
It is now clear that 2007 was an important milestone. This is the year when the Hungarian National Skating Federation recognised the lasting success of the short track Santa Claus Cup organised then for 15 years, and founded the figure skating and ice dance competitions under the same name.
Santa Claus Cup (informally called in Hungarian: Mikulás Kupa) had initially been a weekend competition for the youngest categories, but throughout the years it has expanded into a one-week event featuring the figure skaters and ice dancers of each age group, considered one of the biggest youth competitions in Europe today.
In the recent years, more than 400 skaters have come to the event, representing 40 or even more countries from South America to Asia. Many top-tier champions of the world competed at the Santa Claus Cup, including ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron who have since become Olympic silver medalists, four-time World champions and five-time consecutive European champions, as well as the Latvian Deniss Vasiljevs (ranked 6th in the world and 4th in the European Championships) and the Belgian Loena Hendrickx (ranked 5th in the European Championships).
The standard of the competition is also demonstrated by the fact that the International Skating Union (ISU) has honoured it with development grants for years. Our federation considers it very important that the Santa Claus Cup features an international atmosphere, judges and technical facilities which ensure that it remains a high-standard competition for figure skaters and ice dancers.