NHL star Alexander Ovechkin was so depressed by the defeat of the Russian hockey team at the Vancouver Olympics that he broke a camera of a RIA Novosti correspondent when asked for an interview.
The incident took place in a bar in central Vancouver on Thursday, the day after Russia was swept off the ice by a rampant Canada, losing 7-3 to the Olympic hosts in the quarterfinals of the hockey tournament.
Ovechkin, who failed to score a goal during the match, was going to leave the bar, but noticed the RIA Novosti correspondent with a camera and approached him. When Evgeny Fatkin asked Ovechkin for an interview, the hockey star answered by saying "Do you want me to break your camera?"
He did not wait for an answer and broke the camera display.
"I was holding the camera in my right hand," Fatkin said. "When Ovechkin approached, I put it [my arm] down, and he broke the digital display with his right hand," he said.
Following the incident, Ovechkin reportedly smiled, left the bar and disappeared.
With two days of the Vancouver Games remaining, the Russian team has managed to win only three gold medals - compared to eight at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia's disappointing performance in Vancouver must be thoroughly analyzed and rectified before the Sochi 2014 Games.
VANCOUVER, February 26 (RIA Novosti)
