(26 September 2021)  Twenty four women’s spots for the Olympic Games had been won at the World Championships in March. The remaining six were earned at the Nebelhorn Trophy. 37 women competed in Oberstdorf, Germany, 32 of whom tried to get an Olympic spot for their country.

U.S. star Alysa Liu won the gold medal with 207.40 points and the first Olympic ticket. Nebelhorn Trophy was Liu‘s third international victory of this season after winning the Cranberry Trophy,in Norwood, Massachusetts in August and the Lombardia Trophy in Bergamo, Italy, two weeks before Nebelhorn Trophy. She had trained in the school of Italian coach Lorenzo Magri and with her main coach Massimo Scali in Egna in Northern Italy for several weeks and also stayed there between Lombardia and Nebelhorn Trophy.

At her first important competition of this season in Oberstdorf, she took the lead in the short program to a gypsy dance with 70,86 points. She decided not to try the triple Axel after it did not work with enough stability in practice. Her double Axel was excellent and got mainly GOEs of +3. Her triple flip was good, but she got a small edge warning. Her combination of triple Lutz and triple toe loop looked excellent, but the technical jury saw in slow motion that her toe loop was landed not clearly backwards and therefore she got a q. Her three level 4 spins were at least very good, the layback spin even outstanding. Therefore she had mainly GOEs of +3 and even four GOEs of +5 (out of nine judges) for the layback spin. Her components had an average of 8.1.

At the Lombardia Trophy she had opened her free program with a triple Axel, but it was judged under-rotated. In Germany, she tried again, but popped the jump and got only 1.1 points for a so-so single Axel. The next elements were very good: a triple Lutz, a triple loop and a sequence of double Axel, Euler and triple Salchow. The step sequence (Level 4) was awarded with GOEs of mainly +4. In her combination of triple Lutz and triple toe loop the second jump was near an under-rotation (q). The two triple flips got a small edge warning. Her three spins were outstanding and had GOEs between +3 and +5. Her interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in D was excellent, even to the beat like ice dancers perform and the components went up to around 8.3. Later she commented:  "The skate went pretty well today. I’m going to work hard in practice so that popping my triple axel doesn’t happen any more.”

Ekaterina Kurakova who skates for Poland but is originally Russian, won the silver medal and an Olympic spot for Poland (probably for herself) with 193.58 points. She had trained in Brian Orser’s rink in Toronto two years ago, but decided to move to Lorenzo Magri’s school in Italy and plans to stay there for the whole season. After the short program to the music of “Steppe“ by Rene Aubry she was only in sixth place because in her combination the triple flip got an edge call and the triple toe loop was downgraded. The other six elements were at least good and had mainly GOEs of +2. In her three triple jumps, she had both arms over her head. With her excellent free program she could move up to second place. She performed seven triple jumps, almost all of them in good quality and often with her arms up again. Her spins and step sequences were excellent and her feeling for the interpretation of new versions of Charles Chaplin film music pieces was excellent as well. The components were around 7.8.

Viktoriia Safonova from Belarus won the bronze medal, earning 190.29 points, and also an Olympic spot for her country. In the short program she executed a combination of triple Lutz and double toe loop, which was a bit shaky, and six good other elements. In her free program, she tried seven triple jumps, six of which were good.

Alexia Paganini from Switzerland, who grew up in the New York area and had trained in Hackensack, NJ until a few years ago, finished fourth with 180.48 points and therefore took the fourth Olympic spot. She left her coach Stéphane Lambiel three months ago and now trains in the Zurich area in Switzerland with former Romanian competitor Gheorge Chiper. All seven elements in her short program to Gershwin’s “Summertime“ were at least good, including a combination of triple Lutz and triple toe loop, and had mainly GOEs of +2. Her components were around 7.3. In her free, three triple jumps were clean, but she executed three more with small mistakes.

Anastasiia Shabotova came fifth with 177.70 points, and won the fifth Olympic spots for the Ukraine. Six elements in her short program were good, but the triple flip a bit shaky. In her free, she almost fell on the triple toe loop after the triple Lutz. Her two triple flips got a small edge warning, but the rest was good. Josefin Taljegard from Sweden finished on sixth position with 166.05 points. She had already qualified a spot for the Olympic Games at the World Championships in March 2021 and therefore could not try to get another one. She just took the Nebelhorn Trophy as a season opening competition.

Kailani Craine from Australia mainly trains in Los Angeles. She came seventh with 165.35 points and therefore was lucky to get the sixth and last Olympic spot. She had won the same Olympic qualification competition four years ago and therefore knew how this works although some rules have changed since.

In case a country gives back its Olympic spot, Italy will be the first alternate because Lara Naki Gutmann from Trento in Northern Italy finished eighth with 164.60 points. But she was very disappointed because she had skated better at Lombardia Trophy two weeks before. Second alternate country is Cyprus whose skater Emilea Zingas finished ninth with 158.16 points. Third alternate is Taiwan (Chinese Taipeh). 

A renowned country like France has no women’s spot because Mae-Berenice Meite had torn her Achilles‘ tendon during Worlds and can still not compete. Lea Serna who tried to get a spot for France, was not good enough (14th place). Isadora Williams who skates for Brazil but trains on the East Coast of the USA, withdrew after the short program due to injury. Williams arrived in Germany already ailing, as she had also withdrawn from the Cranberry Cup International last month.