Updated — 3:23 p.m. ET
Soon after the American ice dancing team nailed the short program event that catapulted them into the lead Sunday, Canada's largest newspaper, blasted the victory with a furious story accusing the judges of fixing the scores against the Canadians.
Here's how the piece, written by Star columnist Rosie DiManno and published Sunday, begins:
SOCHI, RUSSIA—The villainy of ice dancing knows no bounds.
Strip away the sequins, wipe off the pancake makeup, delete the frozen-in-place smiles, and what's left is a tawdry whore of a sport where the judges are the johns.
If the fix is not in against Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, then I'm the Princess of Wales.
They are the defending Olympic champions but for the past two seasons it has become transparently clear that a repeat gold was not in the scheme of things. And scheming is the correct term for what transpired in the short program competition here Sunday night.
In a follow-up post, DiManno openly implies that the only reason why defending champions Virtue and Moir didn't win gold again in Sochi was due to a secret agreement between the Russians and the Americans, which was reported in the French media last week.
The IOC refused to investigate the allegations of fixed judging in the ice dancing event, dismissing the accusations as gossip in a press conference last Sunday. "I have seen absolutely no evidence apart from the claim, so we would treat that as a bit of gossip, frankly, which is groundless," said communications director Mark Adams.
"That’s how they do it in this sleazy game. They too often take it out of the hands of the skaters," Dimanno writes. "The U.S. has never won an ice dance championship at the Olympics. Obviously, the judges have decided it’s time."
Correction: A previous version of this post referred incorrectly to the publication date of the Star column. It was published Sunday. (3:23 p.m. 2/17/13)