Grand Prix of Figure Skating

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating (ISU Champions Series from 1995 to 1997) is a series of senior international figure skating competitions organized by the International Skating Union. The invitational series was inaugurated in 1995, incorporating several previously existing events. Medals are awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. The junior-level equivalent is the ISU Junior Grand Prix.

Currently, the sanctioned competitions for the Grand Prix are:

Fall international competitions such as Skate America, organized by the skating federations of their host countries, had been held for many years prior to their organization into a series as separate individual events . Following the Nancy Kerrigan attack in 1994, television coverage of skating was saturated with made-for-TV professional skating events, while the traditional "amateur" or "eligible" competitions were neglected. In order to remedy this situation, in 1995, the skating federations from the United States, Canada, Germany, France, and Japan began to plan their events as a series with cooperative marketing of the television rights in those countries, and with prize money funded by the sale of those rights. At this point, the International Skating Union stepped in and asserted its ownership of the international television rights to the series.

When it was first created in the 1995–1996 skating season, the series was known as the ISU Champions Series. It did not become known as the Grand Prix of Figure Skating until the 1998–1999 season, when the ISU gained the rights to use that name.

It was originally composed of five events, held in the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, and France. Following the demise of the Prize of Moscow News, last held in 1990, the Russian federation created the Cup of Russia, which increased the number of events to six in 1996, the series' second year. In the fall of 2003, the event in Germany, the Bofrost Cup on Ice, was discontinued, and was replaced with one in China, due to the ISU having negotiated a more favorable television contract in that country.

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