By Hiro Yoshida

While Aleksandr Selevko and Mihhail Selevko were born just 18 months apart and have skated together almost their whole lives, the Estonian brothers have each forged their own separate paths throughout their careers.

En route to this season’s European Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania, the siblings competed together at Finlandia Trophy, Budapest Trophy and NHK Trophy with Aleksandr finishing ahead in Finland and Japan and Mihhail in front in Hungary. They would also have faced each other at Golden Spin in Zagreb, Croatia were it not for Mihhail’s skates getting lost in transit. Prior to Europeans, they went one-two at the Estonian National Championships with Mihhail capturing the title for the second year in a row.

By virtue of Mihhail’s eighth place finish at last season’s Europeans in Espoo, Finland, they participated together for the first time at an ISU Championships in Kaunas. Aleksandr was drawn in the third warm-up group of the short programme with Mihhail in the fifth. Aleksandr produced the performance of his life and topped 90 points for the first time in his career coming third in the segment. Mihhail could not have had a more contrasting skate. None of his three jumping passes went according to plan with falls on a quadruple toe loop and a triple Axel. He placed 30^th and missed the cut for the free skating.

“Overall, I was in pretty good condition,” Mihhail reflected. “I feel like it should have gone smoothly, at least in the short, but I’m not really sure what happened.”

Mihhail watched his brother’s short as he prepared to compete backstage with mixed emotions.

“It was motivating, but also it was a lot of pressure for all of the groups to come because we all watched together and everyone was just quiet for a moment,” he said. “I guess we were nervous, but I was still very happy.”

With his job done, Aleksandr took himself to the stands to cheer on his brother.

“I was very nervous,” Aleksandr said. “He fought till the very end. I am happy he was able to show his programme even though there were some elements missing. All the levels in the spins and the steps were good. He did the best he could at that moment.”

Despite his own disappointment, Mihhail tried to be mindful of not letting how he was feeling detract from his brother’s achievement or take away from his focus in advance of the free.

“Before the free, I tried to not bother him so much because it was a lot of pressure,” he said. “It’s a lot less pressure when there’s two of you because if there’s just one, you can’t go wrong. You only have one chance. I was trying to make it easier for him.”

“He helped me a lot after the short programme,” Aleksandr said.

Aleksandr handled the weight of expectations of being in a medal position exceedingly well. He skated an almost perfect performance to earn a new personal best, third in the free and a silver medal. It was Estonia’s first ever medal at Europeans in the history of the event. The only thing that would have the moment sweeter for Aleksandr would be for his brother to have joined him as a medallist.

“It is kind of dream that we will be on the podium together no matter which places,” Aleksandr said. “I hope we will be able to make it.”

The brothers began skating soon after each other although their friendly rivalry did not develop until they reached the Junior ranks.

“When we were little, definitely the difference was a lot bigger,” Mihhail explained. “We weren’t really competing with each other that much because we were in different age groups. From Juniors, we started competing together. At some point, we kind of caught up and basically started learning elements together.”

“There was quite a big gap until we became Juniors,” Aleksandr confirmed.

While the brothers have identical technical content in their short programmes, Mihhail has been attempting quadruple Salchow as well as quadruple toe loop in the free. Aleksandr has so far only included a quadruple toe loop in his free, although he does plan to incorporate a quadruple Lutz at some point in the future. In their training group, the brothers have also been trying to put their own spin on other elements as well. During his change foot camel spin, Aleksandr rotates on his heel. Mihhail has not quite mastered that variation for the moment. Given how well the spin has been received, Aleksandr intends to keep innovating on other elements.

“It was a fun exercise from our coach that we were doing in the whole group,” Mihhail said. “I guess my brother just went with it and start experimenting more.”

“Now there is another spin on the toe pick, a sit spin,” Aleksandr said.

From training side by side on a daily basis with the same coaching team, the brothers intimately know each other’s strengths as skaters and it serves as motivation for them to improve their own skating.

“I think Mihhail is superior to me in the jumps,” Aleksandr said. “I don’t have that many quads and I will probably never jump the way he does. I have the quality of the elements, emotions, and execution of the programme.

“He’s a lot more expressive than I am in the programmes and overall in the elements he looks smoother,” Mihhail concurred on that point. “He said that I’m better technically, but I wouldn’t agree with that. When he’s doing the jumps, they are a lot easier and more powerful. Mine are more technical, but he’s more powerful. I feel like we’re just very different skaters and it’s really hard to compare.

“We have a completely different skating style,” Aleksandr continued. “I really like the way he skates. He has made a huge step forward. He improved a lot.”

“It’s also very interesting that we’ve been skating together all the time with the same coaches and everything in the same way,” Mihhail said. “We’re working together all these years and we’re so different from each other.”

Mihhail concluded his season after Europeans and will now turn his attention to next season.

“I’m happy for my brother and also happy that the season is over so I can rest now and I have time to work on my consistency, my jumps and technique,” he said. “I hope that the next season will go better.”

Aleksandr’s historic achievement at Europeans naturally sealed his place at next month’s World Championships in Montreal. This will be his first time competing at the event since 2021 and he will face the cream of global skating, including Ilia Malinin and the Japanese men.

“They are skating at an unbelievable level,” Aleksandr said. “It will be pretty big for me and very interesting. I really hope that I will be able to show everything I can do. We will see what will happen after that.”

“The Japanese skaters I am not really sure how they do it because so many of them are on such a high level and they’re so consistent, and their jumps are so powerful and so effortless,” Mihhail said. “It’s very confusing when you are at a competition with them. It’s such a huge gap between the skaters. I do think it’s reachable and we can compete with them, but it’s very difficult. It’s incredible that they do all that.”

“When I was skating at the Challenger in Espoo, the first two places were Kao Miura and Shun Sato,” Aleksandr said. “When I became third my coach said, ‘You did everything you could possibly do today. You could not possibly be any higher because you would have to train so much more.’

Aleksandr is keeping his objectives for Montreal simple.

“To skate my programmes clean and I would like to make it to the top ten,” he said. “It’s a preparation for the Olympic season which is why I want to be in the top ten as well.”

Aleksandr has already competed on the Olympic stage in 2022 in an atmosphere radically different from this year’s Europeans. Beijing was not an ideal experience for him which had nothing to do with the lack of spectactors.

“It was a hard Olympics for me,” he said. “I was skating with an injury. It was hard to compete there as it was my first Olympics. I can’t really say how it would be different if there were an audience. It was a shame I had an injury and I was not able to show everything I could do.”

For Aleksandr and Mihhail, the ultimate dream is participating together at the Milano-Cortina Games which are now less than two years away. What will be they be working on between now and then?

“I think I should integrate another quadruple jump my programme at the very least and I have to learn to skate my programme clean with the quads,” Aleksandr said.

“I just also need a little more time to adjust to having more quads in the programmes,” Mihhail said. “One quad is one thing. When it’s two, three or four, it’s completely different. These past seasons I have been trying to work on that. I hope that next season will be a lot easier in this matter. I need to work on skating consistently with multiple quads. There’s still time.”

And how would they describe their relationship as siblings and rivals on the ice?

“Competitive partners because we both work to the same goal,” Mihhail said.

“A competitor and best friend,” Aleksandr added. “We don’t compete with each other. We perform together.”