Despite losing key points after a fall, the 2024 European silver medalist scored a creditable 82.02 points (compared with 108.16 points awarded to the winner).
Selevko, 24, qualified for the Winter Games after last month's European Championships in Sheffield, England, where he finished fifth overall. His younger brother Mihhail finished one place behind and did not make it to the Olympics.

At the start of November, Aleksandr Selevko had upped his personal best in the short program to 91.28 points, while his best total score is the 257.21 points he posted at a Canadian Grand Prix event last November, the first Estonian man to reach the podium at that level.

Milano Cortina is Selevko's second Winter Olympics in the men's singles figure skating; the Estonian finished 28th in Beijing four years ago.
He was 19th of the 29 skaters to take the ice on Tuesday, second in the penultimate cohort, late in the evening.

At a practice session held at the main arena on Sunday evening, Selevko showed strong consistency on his quadruple jumps. "My toe loop went well, no problem at all," Selevko told ERR. "The quadruple lutz was also okay. I did my short program and I think everything was good. There was one mistake, but the quads were very good. I like the ice here. I think I'm in good shape," he added.

Competitors included Italy's Matteo Rizzo and Daniel Grassl before a home crowd, while the favorites were Ilia Malinin (U.S.), who had already taken gold in a team event, and Yuma Kagiyama (Japan), silver medalist in Beijing in 2022.

On the night, Selevko began his program superbly, executing a very solid quadruple toe loop and then landing a fine triple axel. He then suffered a setback when the Estonian record holder fell on a triple lutz and lost the combination as a result. Selevko finished his program solidly and got 82.02 points from the judges; without the fall he likely would have surpassed the 90-point mark.

France's Adam Siao Him Fa delivered a powerful performance, setting a new PB of 102.55 points and moving into first place until Malinin completed his program.
The American had included a backflip in his routine, last seen at the Olympic Games in 1976. While no extra points are awarded for a backflip, Malinin hardly needed them — the judges scored his performance at 108.16 points.

Kagiyama also earned 103.07 points and moved ahead of Siao Him Fa into second place.

With his 82.02 points, Selevko will head into Friday's free skate from 18th place.

Selevko's short program routine can be watched again below.

Figure skating glossary:

Axel: the sport's oldest and most difficult jump, and the only basic jump in competition with a forward take-off, which makes it the easiest to identify. A double or triple Axel is required in both the short program and the free skating.

Free skate, also known as the long program: A four-minute event. A good free skate must be well-balanced and include various elements described and published by the International Skating Union (ISU).

Lutz: a toe-pick-assisted jump with an entrance from a back outside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot. It is the second-most difficult jump in figure skating (after the quadruple axel). Again, points can be awarded for up to quintuple lutz jumps, though in practice quadruple is about the limit. Many skaters "cheat" the jump because they are not strong enough to maintain the counter-rotational edge, resulting in taking off from the wrong edge. A "cheated" Lutz jump without an outside edge is called a "flutz."

Short program: The first of two segments of competitions (followed by the free skate), with routines lasting two minutes 40 seconds. Vocal music with lyrics is permitted in both the short and long programs.

Toe loop (jump): The simplest jump, accomplished by skating forward on the inside edge of the blade; it can be a single jump, double, or all the way up to quintuple, with greater points scored in each case.

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