From Yahoo Sports: SOCHI, Russia – Julia Lipnitskaia’s coach blamed the Russian media’s intense coverage of the teen figure skating star for her subpar performance in the Sochi Olympics figure skating competition.
Eteri Tutberidze said reporters bugged the locker room at Lipnitskaia’s practice rink in Moscow with listening devices after the 15-year-old left the Winter Games to train for the ladies individual competition. The coach also accused the media of stalking Lipnitskaia’s family in her hometown of Nizhny Bardym, a village in the Ural Mountains with a population of just 300.
Tutberidze said the media coverage got so bad that Lipnitskaia had to be evacuated from the practice rink every night to escape reporters. Also, Lipnitskaia had to be booked on numerous flights in order to keep her travel itinerary a secret from the press.
The coach spoke out against the media circus on Thursday after Lipnitskaia fell twice in her long program and finished in fifth place.
“We thought we had a chance here to go back to Moscow to practice at our pace,” Tutberidze said. “But journalists just didn’t give us a chance to be left alone.
“It was laughable because we had to evacuate this child from the practice rink,” she added. “Listening devices and bugs were found installed in the locker room. And these weren’t done by fans.”