Mikhail Kolyada was diagnosed with COVID-19 at the most inopportune moment in his career.
The Russian Olympic Committee has released a list of 212 athletes who will go to the Olympics in Beijing. The list in figure skating drew attention. It lacked the name of Mikhail Kolyada, the vice-champion of the country, the only Russian participant in the Grand Prix finals and Russia's best single skater by the sum of the last ten years.
Instead, the list included the first reserve Evgeny Semenenko, who is also a mentee of Alexei Mishin.
The federation commented on the replacement: "The Russian Olympic figure skating team has been replaced. Mikhail Kolyada will be replaced by Evgeny Semenenko. Mikhail did not feel well a few days ago. All these days, the athlete did not train with his group. Before leaving for the training camp in Krasnoyarsk, Mikhail Kolyada had a PCR test, the result was positive.