Vanessa Torres

Vanessa Torres (born July 17, 1986) is a professional skateboarder. She is sponsored by Meow Skateboards^[1] and is the first woman to win X Games gold.^[2]

In 2003, the X Games first featured female skateboarding competitions; Torres placed first, winning gold, in the street event (then called Park).^[3] Torres won silver in the X Games Street Competition in 2004 and placed in the top ten in 2005–2011 and 2014.^{[citation needed][4]} In 2015 at the X Games in Austin and 2016 at the X Games in Oslo, Torres won bronze. She again placed in the top ten in 2016 and 2017.^[5]

She is featured in several women's skateboarding videos such as AKA: Girl Skater (2003), Getting Nowhere Faster (2004), and Quit Your Day Job (2014). She also appears in the video game Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, making her the third female as a playable skater to appear in the Tony Hawk's video game series after Elissa Steamer and Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins.

Torres is of Mexican descent from Modesto, California.^[6][2] She dropped out of high school to pursue skateboarding.^[2] She splits her personal time living in San Diego and San Francisco, California.^[7]

She was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2026.^[8]