Russian goalie refuses to wear silver medal after losing men's hockey final
Written by Sam Goodwin. This article originally appeared on Yahoo Sports Australia.
Ivan Fedotov was so devastated at missing out on the gold medal at the Winter Olympics that he couldn't bring himself to wear the silver in the post-game ceremony.
The Russian goaltender held his medal in his hand instead of putting it around his neck after the ROC's 2-1 loss to Finland in the men's ice hockey final on Sunday.
Due to Covid-19 protocols at the Beijing Games, athletes are tasked with picking up their medals from a platter rather than having them placed around their necks.
When Fedotov received his medal he simply couldn't bring himself to put it around his neck.
By the end of the ceremony he was the only player from both sides not wearing a medal.
“It's hard to accept that it isn't gold,” Fedotov said afterwards.
“I'm an all-or-nothing person, and it's hard to accept a defeat.
"I'll definitely put it on and enjoy that but later on.”
Fedotov was born in Finland with Russian-Finnish heritage, but grew up in Russia.
With the Russians scoring few goals at the Beijing Olympics, his saves made him a star.
“He carried our team the whole tournament,” former Buffalo Sabres forward Mikhail Grigorenko said of Fedotov.
“He’s probably the one player that deserved gold the most on this team.
"But it’s a team sport. And we probably didn’t play well enough in front of him.”
The absence of NHL players in Beijing made Fedotov, a 25-year-old Philadelphia Flyers prospect who has played his whole career so far in Russia, the starting goaltender.
He later took to social media to post a photo of him wearing his medal alongside teammates in the locker room.
Russian frustration with Finland continues at Olympics
Russia's gold medal hopes were extinguished by Finland for the second time in three Olympics.
They were upset 3-1 by the Finns in the quarter-finals as hosts of the Sochi Games in 2014.
After Sunday's loss, the Russian men’s team hasn't beaten Finland at the Olympics since 1998.
Russia scored first on a power-play goal by Mikhail Grigorenko 13 minutes into the game after Finland's Hannes Bjorninen was sent to the penalty box for high-sticking.
But the more cohesive Finnish attack controlled the puck for much of the match and continually created chances.
The Finns tied the game in the second period when a shot by Ville Pokka squirted between the legs of a Russian defender and past Fedotov.
Finland then went ahead 30 seconds into the final period when Bjorninen scored, and nearly added more down the stretch.
With the victory, Finland finally added gold to a packed Olympic medals case in ice hockey.
The Finnish men have now won medals in seven of the past 10 Winter Olympics going back to 1988, including two silver and four bronze.
"It is hard to put in words what this means. Hockey is a big thing in Finland," said captain Valtteri Filppula.
"We have come close a couple of times and it is finally nice to get the first one (gold)."
Finland and the Russians came into the Beijing games as joint-favourites after perennial contenders Canada and the United States were weakened by the NHL’s decision to keep its stars home over pandemic concerns.
The US and Canada, making do with second-choice rosters, fell in the quarter-finals.
with agencies
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