Vanesa Šelmeková

Vanesa Šelmeková
Vanesa Šelmeková at the 2025 World Championships
Born (2007-01-20) 20 January 2007
Žilina, Slovakia
HometownŽilina
Height1.69 m (5 ft 6+12 in)
Figure skating career
Country Slovakia
DisciplineWomen's singles
CoachVladimir Dvoynikov
Rastislav Vrlak
Skating clubFSC Zilina
Began skating2012
Medal record
Slovak Championships
2024 Turnov Singles
2025 Cieszyn Singles
2023 Budapest Singles

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 two-time Slovak national champion (2024, 2025).

Personal life

Šelmeková was born on 20 January 2007 in Žilina, Slovakia.[1]

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.[2]

2021–2022 season

Šelmeková made her junior international level debut on the 2021–22 ISU Junior Grand Prix series, placing fourteenth at 2021 JGP France and at the 2021 JGP Slovakia. 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.[3]

Selected to compete at the 2022 World Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, Šelmeková placed thirty-fifth in the short program and did not advance to the free skate segment.[3]

2022–2023 season

Šelmeková started the season by competing on the 2022–23 ISU Junior Grand Prix 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.[3]

In December, she finished eleventh at the 2023 Four Nationals Championships. Selected to compete at the 2023 European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Pontebba, Italy, Šelmeková finished the event in sixteenth place.[3]

After winning gold on the junior level at the 2023 Sofia Trophy, Šelmeková competed at the 2023 World Junior Championships in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and finished in twenty-eighth place.[3]

2023–2024 season

Šelmeková began the season by competing on the 2023–24 ISU Junior Grand Prix 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, winning silver at the 2023 Tirnavia Ice Cup, and placing twelfth at the 2023 CS Warsaw Cup.[3]

Šelmeková then went on to compete at her first European Championships as the youngest competitor.[4] She placed twenty-ninth in the short program and did not advance to the free skate.[5] She followed up this event by winning bronze at the 2024 Dragon Trophy.[3]

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.[6] 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.[7] She expressed disappointment about her fall as well as not reaching the score targets set for her by the Slovak Figure Skating Union.[6]

2024–2025 season

Šelmeková started the season by competing on the 2024–25 ISU Junior Grand Prix series, finishing twentieth at 2024 JGP Slovenia.[8] 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.[3]

In December, Šelmeková won the gold medal at the 2025 Four Nationals Championships.[3] Following the event, she traveled to France to refine the choreography for her programs ahead of the 2025 European Championships in January.[9]

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.[10] In the free skate, she had one fall but otherwise landed her jumps to rise to twentieth place overall.[11] She followed up this result with a fourth-place finish at the 2025 Dragon Trophy.[3]

In March, Šelmeková competed at the 2025 World Championships in Boston, Massachusetts, 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.[12]

Programs

Season Short program Free skating
2024–2025
[1]
2023–2024
[13]
  • Golden Hour (Instrumental)
  • Golden Hour
    by Jvke
    choreo. by Georgi Chernyshov, Libor Hlaváček
2022–2023
[14]
2021–2022
[15]
  • It's a New Day
    by Anouk
    choreo. by Dmytro Ignatenko, Bibiána Srbecká

Competitive highlights

Competition placements at senior level [3]
Season 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
World Championships 30th 26th
European Championships 29th 20th
Slovak Championships 3rd 1st 1st
Four Nationals Championships 11th 2nd 1st
CS Ondrej Nepela Memorial 8th 9th
CS Warsaw Cup 12th 14th
Dragon Trophy 3rd
Santa Claus Cup 10th
Tirnavia Ice Cup 4th 2nd 1st
Competition placements at junior level [3]
Season 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
World Junior Championships 35th 28th
Slovak Championships 1st 2nd
JGP Austria 22nd
JGP Czech Republic 14th
JGP France 14th
JGP Hungary 19th
JGP Poland 22nd
JGP Slovakia 14th
JGP Slovenia 19th
Bellu Memorial 3rd
European Youth Olympic Festival 16th
Santa Claus Cup 10th
Skate Celje 2nd
Sofia Trophy 1st
Tirnavia Ice Cup 1st

Detailed results

ISU personal best scores in the +5/-5 GOE System [3]
Segment Type Score Event
Total TSS 152.59 2023 CS Nepela Memorial
Short program TSS 53.34 2023 CS Warsaw Cup
TES 29.29 2024 JGP Slovenia
PCS 24.94 2023 CS Warsaw Cup
Free skating TSS 102.89 2023 CS Nepela Memorial
TES 53.23 2023 CS Nepela Memorial
PCS 50.86 2023 CS Warsaw Cup
Results in the 2024–25 season[3]
Date Event SP FS Total
P Score P Score P Score
Oct 2–5, 2024 2024 JGP Slovenia 13 50.42 23 71.30 19 121.72
Oct 25–27, 2024 2024 CS Nepela Memorial 10 49.33 8 94.16 9 143.49
Nov 1–3, 2024 2024 Tirnavia Ice Cup 1 56.31 1 108.66 1 164.97
Nov 20–24, 2024 2024 CS Warsaw Cup 13 49.86 15 89.57 14 139.43
Dec 13–14, 2024 2025 Four National Championships 1 56.93 1 118.15 1 175.08
Jan 28 – Feb 2, 2025 2025 European Championships 22 48.94 20 86.50 20 135.44
Feb 6–9, 2025 2025 Dragon Trophy 4 52.49 4 102.18 4 154.67
Mar 25–30, 2025 2025 World Championships 26 49.55 26 49.55

References

  1. ^ a b c "Vanesa SELMEKOVA: 2024/2025". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 28 March 2025.
  2. ^ a b Susolik, Branislav (16 March 2017). "Vanesa Šelmeková Majsterska Slovenskej republiky mladšieho žiactva a nádejí 2017" [Vanesa Šelmeková Slovak Junior and Prospective Championships 2017] (in Slovak). Bytčan.sk.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "SVK – Vanesa Selmeková". Skating Scores. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
  4. ^ "Krasokorčuliarska hviezdička Vanesa Šelmeková: Slzy v očiach pominuli, majstrovstvá Európy boli krásnym zážitkom" [Figure skating star Vanesa Šelmeková: Tears in my eyes have disappeared, the European Championships were a beautiful experience]. www.zilinskyvecernik.sk. 11 February 2024. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  5. ^ "Slovenský talent na premiérových ME bez postupu: Šampionát priniesol medailovú žatvu Belgicka" [Slovak talent premieres at the European Championships without progressing: The championship brought a medal harvest for Belgium]. Športky.sk (in Slovak). 2024-01-13. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  6. ^ a b "Slovenka zabojovala, prvýkrát skočila ťažkú kombináciu. Z obľúbeného skoku však spadla" [The Slovak fought hard, jumped a difficult combination for the first time. However, she fell from her favorite jump]. sportnet.sme.sk (in Slovak). 20 March 2024. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  7. ^ "Prišiel pád, ktorý sa podpísal na konečnom hodnotení: Šelmeková nemala v Montreale svoj deň" [A fall happened, which affected the final score: Šelmeková did not have her day in Montreal]. Športky.sk (in Slovak). 2024-03-21. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  8. ^ "Šelmeková obsadila 19. miesto na slovinskej Grand Prix, víťazstvo putuje do USA" [Šelmeková takes nineteenth place in Slovenian Grand Prix, victory goes to US]. Šport.sk. 2024-10-05. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  9. ^ "Už bol blízko: Krasokorčuliar Adam Hagara túži na majstrovstvách Európy v Talinne po tejto méte" [He was close: Figure skater Adam Hagara is aiming for this goal at the European Championships in Tallinn]. Plus 7 dní (in Slovak). 2025-01-28. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  10. ^ "Šelmeková zvládla postup do finálových jázd, triumfovala Gruzínka Gubanovová" [Šelmeková managed to advance to the final, Georgian Gubanova triumphed]. Športky.sk (in Slovak). 2025-01-29. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  11. ^ "Petrokinová oslavuje premiérový triumf na ME, Šelmeková dosiahla veľmi slušný výsledok" [Petrokin celebrates premiere triumph at the European Championships, Šelmeková achieves a very decent result]. Športky.sk (in Slovak). 2025-01-31. Retrieved 2025-02-01.
  12. ^ Bőd, Titanilla (26 March 2025). "Keď vstúpila na ľad, stuhli jej nohy, nemohla sa pohnúť. Na Slovenku doľahla nervozita" [When she stepped onto the ice, her legs froze, she couldn't move. Nervousness settled over the Slovak.]. sportnet.sme.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 2025-04-05.
  13. ^ a b "Vanesa SELMEKOVA: 2023/2024". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 13 March 2024.
  14. ^ a b "Vanesa SELMEKOVA: 2022/2023". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 27 February 2023.
  15. ^ a b "Vanesa SELMEKOVA: 2021/2022". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on 18 April 2022.