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Marina Zoueva Thrown Under the Bus By Canadian Silver Medalists Virtue And Moir

By Patricia Didelot
Published on: 03:54 PST, Feb 19, 2014

Coach Marina Zoueva was thrown under the bus by the Canadian ice dancing silver medalists at the Winter Olympics for what they say is not having their best interest at heart during the finals of the competition.

It all stems from the fact that there seems to be a conflict of interest in this strange arrangement that the US and Canadians have going when it comes to Marina Zoueva, who coaches both pairs.

After Meryl Davis and Charlie White took the gold medal in the ice skating competition and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir — gold medalists at the Vancouver Games in 2010 — won the silver, the finger pointing began.

Many in the Canadian press believe that Marina Zoueva showed favoritism for the American pair and apparently Virtue and Moir agree.

During a press conference on Tuesday following the end of competition, Scott Moir said:

“It’s an interesting process, for sure. 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.”

The two couples not only share a coach, but train in the same facility in Detroit and some are saying they are just being sore losers as four years ago, Marina Zoueva helped Virtue and Moir obtain the gold medal in Vancouver.

Moir continued saying:

“We sometimes felt like (Zoueva) wasn’t in our corner. We had some odd things happen this year that hadn’t happened before. For the first time, she wasn’t there.”

For those who don’t follow the world of figure skating on a regular basis, things have most decidedly gone to the American pair, who after being the runners-up in 2010, were determined to obtained the gold in Sochi.

Davis and White have beaten the Canadians every time in their past four head-to-head meetings, including the Olympic team competition.

However, the Canadians say things came to a halt when Marina Zoueva decided to attend the US Nationals in Boston instead of coming to support Moir and Virtue at the Canadian Nationals in Vancouver. The events took place on the same weekend.

Marina Zoueva has been very philosophical in her comments regarding the rift with the Canadian team only saying, “I’m fine. It’s okay, I made them first, and now they are second. It’s okay, really.”

[Image via Olga Besnard / Shutterstock.com]

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