Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin started their season – their first Olympic season as a team – in Oberstdorf, at Nebelhorn Trophy, debuting a free skate meant to tell their real-life story as a pair: finding each other, amid despair, amid lost hope, and building a competitive duo from scratch. A program like a metaphor, about beginnings – theirs. And a photo more like a window to the world: that’s how the stories start.
In the not so distant past, Nebelhorn Trophy in Oberstdorf was a key-competition during the Olympic season – the last chance to qualify Olympic spots, hence a heavily contested and emotionally charged event.
This season, with the Olympic qualifier moved to Beijing, China (see the almost official nickname, Chinese Nebelhorn), the original Nebelhorn in Oberstdorf stayed, simply, the fifth event of the 2025-2026 ISU Challenger Series.
Not to say it wasn’t contested – it was, it was! – but the energy around it was less tense, less palpable.
Medals were awarded in women, men, pairs and ice dance categories, with Amber Glenn, Stephen Gogolev, Minerva Fabienne Hase & Nikita Volodin and Lilah Fear & Lewis Gibson starting their season with a win – but, more than that, with a boost of confidence and a much needed feedback on their overall material.
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Especially during Olympic seasons, beginnings can really prove essential – so we revisit them through photos, and we can come back to them from time to time during the season, to see how it all started, notice the progress, the steps, the challenges overcome.
Our first stop is the pairs’ event in Oberstdorf, which included some of the world’s top teams aspiring at the Olympic podium, at the Olympic gold: Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, World bronze and silver medalists the previous seasons, and two-time World champions and two-time World silver medalists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara.
Now that was an encounter!, with the Japanese team winning the short program, and the Germans winning the free skate and the overall event. Let’s have a look.
Intro by Florentina Tone
Photos by Alberto Ponti, Oberstdorf
TOP TEAMS, EYES ON THE OLYMPIC GOLD
Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin: a tango short program, to accompany them in the Olympic season
The free skate, set to music by Max Richter and choreographed by Benoît Richaud, is meant to tell their story, starting with their separate stories – how Minerva and Nikita found each other, how they became a team and they’re now sharing their journey in search for greatness
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara decided their Paint It Black short program from last season was strong enough to carry them through the Olympic season too – and the truth is, it almost became their second skin
For the free skate, they chose music from the movie Gladiator, including the powerful, emotional Nelle tue mani, as sang by Andrea Bocelli, meant to become a moment on the Olympic ice of Milano-Cortina
Finishing on 3rd place in Oberstdorf, 2025 U.S. national champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov; a team that’s also at the start of their shared journey, but you wouldn’t say – they’re very good, and very together already.
Italy’s Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini – they too are ready for the Olympics on home ice
Representing the United States, Katie McBeath and Daniil Parkman
Canada’s Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud – and we love their programs, their overall packaging this season
Italy’s Lucrezia Beccari and Matteo Guarise
Germany’s Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel
Great Britain’s Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby
Italy’s Irma Caldara and Riccardo Maglio in a movie-like pose at the beginning of their short program
Next: Ice dance at 2025 Nebelhorn Trophy