Every October, Almaty's Halyk Arena fills with figure skaters from around the world competing in memory of Denis Ten, the athlete who won Kazakhstan's first-ever Olympic medal in the sport — bronze at Sochi 2014. The 2026 edition of the Denis Ten Memorial Challenge, held October 7-10, drew roughly 150 skaters from more than 20 countries, and it has quietly become one of the most meaningful events on the international skating calendar.
Ten's story explains why. He won an ISU Junior Grand Prix title at just 16, took World Championship silver in 2013 and bronze in 2015, and made Olympic history for his country in 2014. After his death in 2018, his family founded the Denis Ten Foundation, led by his mother Oksana Ten, launching the memorial tournament in 2019. What began as a tribute is now part of the ISU Challenger Series, meaning results count toward world standings — and young Kazakh skaters can earn ranking points on home ice instead of flying abroad for every competition.
The results are visible. Kazakhstan's figure skating scene has grown in both numbers and depth, capped by Mikhail Shaidorov's gold in men's singles at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Past memorial winners read like a who's-who of the sport: Shaidorov himself, Russia's Petr Gumennik, Belarus's Viktoria Safonova and Japanese great Daisuke Takahashi.
At this year's competition, Alexandra Ignatova took the women's title with 226.01 points, edging South Korea's Kim Yu-jae and Kazakhstan's own Sofia Samodelkina. Vladislav Dikidzhi won the men's event with 312.79 points, and Finland's Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis topped the ice dance podium. Samodelkina, who skated at the 2026 Olympics, praised the Almaty crowd for giving skaters what she described as an incredible surge of energy.
The event isn't only about scores. The 2026 gala, "The Ice That Remembers," blended competition medalists, academy students, music and aerial acrobatics, and even featured a tournament anthem, excerpts of Ten's poetry and an AI avatar of the skater — a reminder that this is as much a cultural evening as a sporting one. Backing comes from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the Almaty city administration and Samruk Kazyna.
For travellers, it's a genuinely good reason to visit Almaty in autumn. Tickets to an international skating event are far easier to get here than at a European or North American Grand Prix, the atmosphere is famously warm, and Almaty itself — tree-lined boulevards, mountain backdrops, a fast-improving food scene — rewards a few extra days. If you time a trip for the memorial week, you'll see world-class sport and a country celebrating its favourite athlete in the same weekend.
