SOCHI, Russia, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Canadian ice dancing duo Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue say their coach gave preferential treatment to Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who won the gold medal.
Fans and Canadian press were quick to point fingers when Virtue and Moir didn't get the gold for their ice dancing performance, but now the two have decided to join in by attributing their lack of a first-place win to their coach Marina Zoueva.
Moir and Virtue said in a press conference Tuesday that Zoueva, who coaches both teams, did not have their best interests at heart and gave preference to their American counterparts.
"It's an interesting process, for sure," Moir said. "Obviously, she coaches both teams, and it was kind of delicate, but we weren't going to let anything get in the way of our goals. We went to Marina on countless occasions and told her we weren't happy. We wouldn't be happy with the silver medal. I take my hat off to Tessa. She does a good job of being blunt in certain circumstances when necessary."
Related
The Canadian duo won the gold in Vancouver in 2010 but since then Davis and White have beaten them in 4 head-to-head competitions until finally taking the Olympic gold. The tension between the two and Zoueva seemed to come to a peak when the coach decided to attend the U.S. Nationals in Boston over the Canadian Nationals in Vancouver when they happened to be on the same weekend.
Aside from their instructor's absence, they also say that when they asked to change their music to something more classical like the Americans' which highlights footwork and unison, they were denied.
"We sometimes felt like [Zoueva] wasn't in our corner," Moir said. "We had some off-things happen this year. We expected Marina to be on our team and work with us like in Vancouver."
Zoueva was terse in response to her team's comments. "I'm fine. It's OK," she said. "I made them first, and now they are second. It's OK, really."
[Yahoo]
