Anastasia PaninaSports correspondentAll materialsIf it were necessary to choose among the skaters the winner in the nomination «pain of the Olympic season», Mikhail Kolyada could become the winner due to the totality of disappointments and unrealized potential. Instead of the Olympics with the cult program «White Raven» — travel restrictions against the background of 40 positive tests for coronavirus. Instead of the opportunity to block Pyeongchang memories once and for all with a failure in the team tournament — again, not even a failure, but some kind of fatal bad luck. A tiny percentage of the total mass of people fall into the trap of infinitely positive tests, but an even more insignificant percentage pays for this mystery of nature by skipping the main event of life. To be honest, there was a feeling that after everything that had fallen on him, Mikhail Kolyada would not return to the ice. He is still 27 years old, he is happily married, brings up a luxurious chubby cat and has said more than once that family is most important to him. And children. And given the wedding boom of one part of the figure community after Beijing 2022, it would be logical to expect a baby boom from those already married. It was interesting to know that Mikhail himself was also not completely sure that he could continue his career, and the reason for this lay in in the words of his coach Alexei Mishin. They started working together 2 years ago, and all this time Mishin emphasized in an interview — their «love» with Kolyada will live for two years — just before the end of the Olympic season. And Misha, of course, read these interviews. But, I think, the coach who hardly saw a lot in his worst dream could imagine that the Olympics in the life of his athlete would not happen in the end, not because he was poorly prepared, but because they would not be allowed because of an incorrect swab from the nasopharynx. So Mishin, most likely, expected that in two years he would provide Kolyada with a result, after which he would no longer have anything to hold on to in sports. For example, one more medal of the team tournament and, in a good situation, the bronze of the individual tournament, and then another medal of the World Championship. On such a note, it is a pleasure to end a career.
