Mihhail Selevko has started the 2026-27 season with back-to-back victories, winning both the Tallinn Open and the 2026 CS Lombardia Trophy.

For the Estonian skater, however, the results are only one part of a much bigger story. His victories have come at the beginning of a new chapter, following a difficult period marked by injuries, inconsistent training and doubts about his future in the sport.

Selevko decided that something had to change. He adjusted his training approach and began working with a new team, while continuing to consult with Rafael Arutyunyan.

“I think it’s actually me who’s changed, and the way I feel during practice,” Selevko explained.

There was a point last season when he felt he had reached a crossroads.

“I went through a really tough time. I had some injuries, and I just couldn’t get myself together. Nothing was working in practice,” he recalled. “So I realized I had to change something — or retire from figure skating.”

Selevko did not want to walk away from the sport. Instead, he began considering what he could change to give himself another chance.

“I didn’t want to retire, but I had a choice: either make some drastic changes or…” he said. “Also, I thought about maybe moving somewhere. I considered going to my brother in America.”

After thinking it over, he decided to try something different and join Svetlana Varnavskaya’s team.

“I came to the decision that I’d try switching to this team and see how it goes.”

Learning to trust the process

Selevko spent about a month in California during the offseason, working with Arutyunyan on technical aspects and physical preparation. Normally, he spends several months in California during the summer, but this year he wanted to devote more time to establishing himself with his new team in Tallinn.

He continues to work with Arutyunyan during the season, travelling for consultations when possible, sending videos and staying in contact. When Arutyunyan attends competitions, he also watches Selevko’s training sessions and provides feedback.

Meanwhile, Selevko was learning how to adapt to a new environment.

“I had a really tough training period this summer,” he said. “It was all new to me, and everything felt kind of hard. Nothing was working out. It was really hard to skate the programs, and I was struggling to land the quad jumps.”

The key was simply to keep going.

“But somehow, I just kept training and kept believing. I tried to trust the process.”

As the season approached, that persistence began to pay off. Selevko found his jumps becoming more consistent and was able to land them in his programs.

“There’s still some work to be done, of course, and I still need to improve to reach my optimal shape,” he said. “But I’m already doing much better, and I feel pretty confident.”

Building confidence has become one of his main goals for the season.

“I’d like to get myself into a place where I can step onto the ice and confidently skate my program without doubts in my mind,” he explained. “I want to do what I’m capable of, do it confidently and well, and continue working on the quality.”

A different side of Selevko

Those changes are reflected in his skating this season. Selevko is presenting two very different programs: a high-energy, electronic short program and a more familiar, emotional free skate.

Nowhere is that change more apparent than in Selevko’s short program.

After the dark, horror-inspired program he skated last season, he and choreographer Adam Solya wanted to go in the opposite direction.

“After the last short program, my choreographer, Adam, and I sat down and decided we needed to come up with something I hadn’t skated before — something really unusual,” Selevko explained.

They wanted something playful, energetic and completely outside the character he had presented the previous season.

“I wanted to find something really fun and energetic after such a dark program, something like a disco,” said Selevko.

He and Solya listened to electronic music and eventually narrowed their search down to two tracks. Rather than choosing one, they combined them, creating a sharp transition from a high-energy party atmosphere into something more subtle and seductive.

The result is an electronic, rave-inspired performance built around “Channel 43” by Wolfgang Gartner and deadmau5 and “Opr” by Gesaffelstein. For Selevko, the idea was simple: “It’s like having fun at a rave party.”

But stepping into that new character has required Selevko to approach performance differently.

“The short program is still very, very new for me,” he said. “I have to really focus on my facial expressions, perform the movements with full force, and include two quadruples and a triple Axel at the end.”

The program may be far removed from last year’s darker character, but Selevko has found that the more cinematic style he has used in the past came naturally to him.

“With the darker programs, like last year’s short program, which was so spooky, I had to get into the character of a figure skater who intimidates the judges and spectators,” he said. “That was actually a little easier for me. It clicked right away.”

The new short program requires something different.

“This one is a bit more complicated. It still needs some time.”

Building on what already works

If the short program pushes Selevko outside his comfort zone, the free skate allows him to build on the qualities audiences have come to associate with his skating.

The free skate, also choreographed by Solya, stays closer to his usual style.

He chose the music almost immediately and could already picture the character he wanted to portray. The program features “Frostpunk Theme” by Piotr Musiał and “Chaoticism” by Daniel Ciurlizza.

“It turned out to be closer to my usual style,” he explained. “I wanted it to feel comfortable for me to skate, but I also wanted to make a slight step forward from what I’d done before so I could express more emotion while skating.”

The two programs give him an opportunity to explore different aspects of his personality.

“In the short program, there’s more of a smile and a lively mood,” he said. “In the free skate, it should be more reflective, with a little more of a sense of suffering and perhaps some contrasting emotions.”

Performance has become an important part of that process.

“I want to express those emotions and incorporate my facial expressions more into the programs,” Selevko said. “I want to work on the smoothness of my movements, to build on what worked well for me in past seasons and continue developing it.”

Looking for more consistency

For Selevko, the focus now is less on adding difficulty and more on making his existing elements reliable.

“The quality of the elements,” he said when asked what he wants to improve most.

He is particularly focused on his landings.

“I had some shaky landings at this Tallinn Open,” Selevko noted. “I’d lean to one side, then the other. I’d like to work on that. Once I’ve taken off, I want to maintain that position so I don’t end up leaning to one side, like I sometimes do.”

His focus on quality extends to his spins and step sequence as well.

At the same time, Selevko has returned to training some of his other quads and is working more on the quad flip.

“I hope I’ll be able to incorporate it into my program soon as well,” he said. “We’ll see.”

A healthy rivalry

Some of that drive comes from the person who has shared his skating career almost from the beginning: his brother Aleksandr. The two have developed their careers side by side, with both competing for Estonia.

Rather than seeing the comparisons as a burden, Mihhail views their rivalry as something that pushes both of them forward.

“My brother and I have always had a bit of a rivalry,” he said. “We push each other to do better in certain things. He’s better at some things, and I’m better at others.”

The competition between them is mutual.

“I want to get ahead of him, and he wants to get ahead of me,” he chuckled. “We have this kind of healthy competition.”

Their shared career has also become an important part of their relationship away from the rink.

“Somehow, it brings us closer because after every competition there’s always a reason to call each other, whether it’s just to check in, talk about something, or discuss the competition.”

Figure skating is rarely far from the conversation.

“We talk about figure skating at home, at the rink and everywhere else.”

Finding his way back to skating

Mihhail’s complicated relationship with skating began long before his current crossroads.

He first stepped onto the ice because of his brother. As a child, he initially saw skating as something fun to do.

Then, around the age of ten, he reached a point where he simply did not want to skate anymore.

“After school, I wanted to hang out at home, play a game or watch something,” he recalled. “But I had to go to practice, come back from practice and do my homework. I just couldn’t take figure skating anymore.”

The feeling eventually changed, although not overnight.

“Little by little, things shifted, and I wanted to skate again.”

Over time, the motivation returned. He wanted to learn new programs, master new elements and compete.

“In that sense, my brother and I are different,” Selevko said. “He’s always had that fire in his eyes when it comes to figure skating. I don’t think I ever remember a time when he didn’t want to skate.”

Neither brother was originally expected to pursue figure skating professionally.

Their parents initially wanted Aleksandr to participate in sport for health reasons. Hockey was considered, but because of his age, he ended up in figure skating instead.

Mihhail followed him to the rink.

“I was just going along to watch. I watched my brother, and eventually I started skating myself.”

At the time, no one could have predicted where it would lead.

“I don’t think anyone expected that we’d end up skating professionally at the world level into our twenties and beyond.”

More than skating

Away from the rink, Selevko has another passion: video game design.

“Besides sports, I’m also studying video game design at a university in Finland, and that’s a big part of my life, too,” he said. “I practice at the rink and develop games at home in my free time.”

His interest in gaming also shapes the way he thinks about music and programs.

Selevko would like to skate more often to music that he actually listens to in everyday life. One example is the soundtrack of Arcane, a series whose music is already part of his personal playlist.

“I had one program featuring music from the series, but I’d like to have more programs like that,” he said. “I’d like to skate to something else that I actually listen to.”

When it comes to portraying specific fictional characters, however, Selevko is less certain.

“I associate specific characters more with gala programs,” he explained. “I can’t really picture myself skating as a specific character.”

For his competitive programs, he prefers something more abstract.

Looking ahead

Mihhail Selevko will compete this week at Trialeti Trophy in Georgia followed by Grand Prix assignments in Canada and Finland.

His ambitions for the major championships are clear: a medal at the European Championships and a top-10 finish at the World Championships.

But perhaps more important than the results is the confidence he