Olympic Games supremo Thomas Bach on Friday branded the reactions of Kamila Valieva's coaches as chilling after the 15-year-old botched her attempt to secure gold in the women's figure skating competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Valieva, who had been leading the event after the short programme on Tuesday, cracked in her free skate on Thursday night. She dropped to fourth place as her compatriot Anna Shcherbakova surged to the gold medal.
Valieva left the ice hiding tears behind her hands and sobbed in the "kiss and cry" area as her coach, Eteri Tutberidze, confronted her.
"Why did you let it go? Explain it to me, why? Why did you stop fighting completely? Somewhere after the axel you let it go," Tutberidze said.
Comment
Bach, who heads the International Olympic Committee (IOC) - which organises the games, said: "I was very, very disturbed when I watched the competition on TV. How high the pressure on her must have been."
"When I afterwards saw how she was received by her close entourage ... it was chilling to see this.
"Rather than giving her comfort, rather than to try to help her you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance and if you were interpreting the body language of them, it got even worse because this was even some kind of dismissive gestures.
"All of this does not give me much confidence in Kamila's closest entourage."
Valieva's participation in China has stoked controversy. She failed a doping test at her national championships last December but the result was only revealed on 8 February, the day after the teenager had helped the Russian Olympic Committee win the team event.
Ban
The Russian Anti-Doping Agency lifted a provisional ban on her and the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday rejected an appeal by the IOC, the International Skating Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency to re-instate the suspension - allowing her to compete in the single event on Tuesday and Thursday.
"To see her struggling on the ice, to see her, how she tries to compose herself again, how then she tries to finish her programme and you could see in every movement, in the body language, you could feel that this is immense, immense mental stress and maybe she would have preferred to just leave the ice and try to leave this story behind her," added Bach.
On Friday, top sports administrators in the Russian government Kremlin said they disagreed with Bach's assessment of events.
The Kremlin said tough trainers were needed in the sports world to achieve victories.
Valieva was favourite to win the women's event, having set several world records in the short time since she made her senior debut in October.
A series of falls and inelegant landings in the free skate destroyed her chances of a medal.
