Russian figure skater, Mikhail Kolyada / Михаил Коляда, has decided to pause his figure skating career. This development was reported this week by both sports.ru and sport-express.ru after the skater made the announcement while appearing on Maxim Trankov’s ‘Free Skate’ podcast.
The podcast episode hasn’t yet been broadcast, but matchtv.ru quoted Trankov as saying, “As part of my podcast, Misha announced that he was suspending his career. I think he was pretty clear about everything. Whether we should expect him to return – I can not say. I’m not a clairvoyant, Alexei Mishin has a lot of experience, and Misha is a mature guy. If he made such a decision, it means it was a balanced one”.
Tatiana Mishina (Alexei Mishin’s wife and one of Kolyada’s coaching team) seemed to confirm Kolyada’s decision when she said “Kolyada is still considering how to approach the end of his career, so he’s decided to put things on hold and think about what will happen next”.
The Olympic team silver medallist and gold medallist at World Team Trophy 2021 hasn’t yet made a statement on social media, but it appears that, at least for now, he is taking some time away from figure skating. Although, like other skaters who put their careers on hold, for example Alina Zagitova, it is unlikely that he will return, especially as Russian skaters are still excluded from international competition. But we hope to see Kolyada in the future, maybe in coaching or commentary. And if we’re lucky, he might decide go give competitive figure skating another chance. Who knows what the future holds!
