OREANDA-NEWS. Former president of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) Vladimir Drachev criticized the organizing committee of the 2022 Winter Olympics for refusing to postpone the Games for a year. He also called for the abolition of tests for coronavirus among athletes, because, in his opinion, the test results may be false.

“It would be right to postpone these Olympic Games. But if it is not possible to transfer, then everyone should be allowed to participate in the Games without any tests. If a person falls ill with symptoms - headache, fever - then he must be isolated. And if there are no symptoms, let him act. Because we can get false positive tests, it will unsettle a person, and the competition is already over. So some of the leaders will fly out in both short track and hockey. We understand that there are sports on the street, but there are also indoors - curling, for example.

Therefore, these are no longer the Olympic Games, but competitions in the hospital: where more people got sick, where less. Either everything needs to be fully opened and everyone should be able to participate, or this Olympics should be closed and postponed for a year,” Drachev told Gazeta.Ru.

Due to the sanctions of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Russian team will perform under the name ROC (Russian Olympic Committee), and instead of the anthem at the awards ceremony, a fragment from the First Piano Concerto by Pyotr Tchaikovsky will sound.

Earlier, the silver medalist of the 2022 Russian figure skating championship Mikhail Kolyada passed a negative test for coronavirus and resumed training.