Vanesa Šelmeková

Vanesa Šelmeková (born 20 January 2007) is a Slovak figure skater. She is the 2024 Tirnavia Ice Cup champion, the 2023 Tirnavia Ice Cup silver medalist, the 2024 Dragon Trophy bronze medalist, and a three-time Slovak national champion (2024-26).

Personal life Šelmeková was born on 20 January 2007 in Žilina, Slovakia. 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. Šelmeková therefore finished her season by competing at the World Championships. In the short program, she under-rotated her triple Lutz jump-triple toe loop jump 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. She subsequently went on to compete on the 2024–25 ISU Challenger Series, finishing ninth at the 2024 CS Nepela Memorial and fourteenth at the 2024 CS Warsaw Cup. Between those two events, she won the gold medal at the 2024 Tirnavia Ice Cup.

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.

2025–2026 season Šelmeková took two and a half months off skating to heal from a torn muscle, which formed scar tissue. She resumed training in early June and attended various training camps over the summer.

She was announced to be Slovakia's entrant in the women's singles category at the ISU Skate to Milano, the final qualifying event for the 2026 Winter Olympics. She was selected after a test skate held in August; she was the only competitor in her category after Ema Doboszová withdrew. Speaking about her performance at the test skate, Šelmeková said that she was satisfied with her short program, except for a bad landing on a Lutz jump, but that she was still becoming comfortable with her free skate. She also noted that she received feedback from the judges urging her to change her free skate costume, which had cost her a thousand Euros.