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Vanesa Šelmeková (born 20 January 2007) is a Slovak
Šelmeková began the season by competing on the
Šelmeková started the season by competing on the
Vanesa Šelmeková
at Skating Scores
figure skater
Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic d ...
. She is the 2024 Tirnavia Ice Cup champion, the 2023 Tirnavia Ice Cup silver medalist, the 2024 Dragon Trophy bronze medalist, and a two-time Slovak national champion (2024, 2025).
Personal life
Šelmeková was born on 20 January 2007 inŽilina
Žilina (; ; ; ; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#Z, names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the List of cities ...
, Slovakia.
Career
Early years
Šelmeková began learning how to skate when she was five years old. Her mother Monika put her into the sport on the recommendation of a friend based on Šelmeková's early love of singing, dancing, and listening to music.2021–2022 season
Šelmeková made her junior international level debut on the2021–22 ISU Junior Grand Prix
The 2021–22 ISU Junior Grand Prix was a series of junior international competitions organized by the International Skating Union that were held from August 2021 through December 2021. It was the junior-level complement to the 2021–22 ISU Gran ...
series, placing fourteenth at 2021 JGP France and at the 2021 JGP Slovakia
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...
. Continuing to compete on the junior level, Šelmeková won the bronze medal at the 2021 Tirnavia Ice Cup, bronze at 2021 Skate Celje, placing tenth at the 2021 Santa Claus Cup, and winning bronze at the 2022 Bellu Memorial.
Selected to compete at the 2022 World Junior Championships in Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...
, Estonia, Šelmeková placed thirty-fifth in the short program and did not advance to the free skate segment.
2022–2023 season
Šelmeková started the season by competing on the2022–23 ISU Junior Grand Prix
The 2022–23 ISU Junior Grand Prix was a series of junior international competitions organized by the International Skating Union that were held from August 2022 through December 2022. It was the junior-level complement to the 2022–23 ISU Gran ...
series, placing fourteenth at 2022 JGP Czech Republic and twenty-second at 2022 JGP Poland. She then moved up to the senior level, finishing fourth at the 2022 Tirnavia Ice Cup and tenth at the 2022 Santa Claus Cup.
In December, she finished eleventh at the 2023 Four Nationals Championships. Selected to compete at the 2023 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Pontebba
Pontebba (; ; ) is a (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Geography
Pontebba, named after meaning "bridge", is situated at the confluence of the Pontebbana creek and th ...
, Italy, Šelmeková finished the event in sixteenth place.
After winning gold on the junior level at the 2023 Sofia Trophy, Šelmeková competed at the 2023 World Junior Championships in Calgary, Alberta
Calgary () is a major city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a Metropolitan area, metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the List of ...
, Canada and finished in twenty-eighth place.
2023–2024 season
Šelmeková began the season by competing on the 2023–24 ISU Junior Grand Prix
The 2023–24 ISU Junior Grand Prix was a series of junior international competitions organized by the International Skating Union that were held from August 2023 through December 2023. It was the junior-level complement to the 2023–24 ISU Gra ...
series, placing twenty-second at 2023 JGP Austria and nineteenth at 2023 JGP Hungary. She then competed on the senior level, placing eighth at the 2023 CS Nepela Memorial
The 2023 CS Nepela Memorial was held on September 28–30, 2023, in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was part of the 2023–24 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, and ice dance.
Entries
The International Skatin ...
, winning silver at the 2023 Tirnavia Ice Cup, and placing twelfth at the 2023 CS Warsaw Cup.
Šelmeková then went on to compete at her first European Championships
A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs.
In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...
as the youngest competitor. She placed twenty-ninth in the short program and did not advance to the free skate. She followed up this event by winning bronze at the 2024 Dragon Trophy.
She met the required minimum technical scores to compete at the 2024 World Championships late in the season, and the Slovak Figure Skating Union was divided about whether to send her; they ultimately decided to do so, but if she did not mean a target technical and overall score, she would have to pay the travel expenses for the competition herself. Šelmeková therefore finished her season by competing at the World Championships. In the short program, she under-rotated her triple Lutz jump
The Lutz is a figure skating jump named after Alois Lutz, an Austrian skater. It is a toepick-assisted jump with an entrance from a back outside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot. It is the second-most difficult jum ...
-triple toe loop jump
The toe loop jump is the simplest Figure skating jumps, jump in the sport of figure skating. It was invented in the 1920s by American professional figure skater Bruce Mapes. The toe loop is accomplished by skating forward on the inside edge of th ...
combination and fell on her triple flip. She finished in twenty-eighth place and did not advance to the free skate. She expressed disappointment about her fall as well as not reaching the score targets set for her by the Slovak Figure Skating Union.
2024–2025 season
Šelmeková started the season by competing on the 2024–25 ISU Junior Grand Prix
The 2024–25 ISU Junior Grand Prix was a series of junior international competitions organized by the International Skating Union that were held from August 2024 through December 2024. It was the junior-level complement to the 2024–25 ISU Grand ...
series, finishing twentieth at 2024 JGP Slovenia. She subsequently went on to compete on the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series
The 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series was held from September to December 2024. It was the tenth season of the ISU Challenger Series, a group of senior-level international figure skating competitions.
Competitions
The International Skating Union ...
, finishing ninth at the 2024 CS Nepela Memorial
The 2024 CS Nepela Memorial was held on October 24–26, 2024, in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was part of the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, and ice dance.
Entries
The International Skating ...
and fourteenth at the 2024 CS Warsaw Cup
The 2024 CS Warsaw Cup was held on November 20–24, 2024, in Warsaw, Poland. It was part of the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series. Medals were awarded in men's singles, women's singles, pairs, and ice dance.
Entries
The International Skating U ...
. Between those two events, she won the gold medal at the 2024 Tirnavia Ice Cup.
In December, Šelmeková won the gold medal at the 2025 Four Nationals Championships. Following the event, she traveled to France to refine the choreography for her programs ahead of the 2025 European Championships in January.
At the European Championships, she reached the free skate after placing twenty-second in the short program; it was the first time in six years that a Slovak woman had qualified for the free skate at the European championships. In the free skate, she had one fall but otherwise landed her jumps to rise to twentieth place overall. She followed up this result with a fourth-place finish at the 2025 Dragon Trophy.
In March, Šelmeková competed at the 2025 World Championships in Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, United States. She placed twenty-sixth in the short program and did not advance to the free skate. Šelmeková later shared that while she felt more comfortable than she had at the previous year's World Championships, she became nervous, which caused her to stiffen up, and that she was still recovering from an injury that had been bothering her since before the European Championships. However, she expressed happiness that the audience reacted well to her step sequence.
Programs
Competitive highlights
Detailed results
External links
*Vanesa Šelmeková
at Skating Scores
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Šelmeková, Vanesa 2007 births Living people Slovak female single skaters Sportspeople from Žilina 21st-century Slovak sportswomen