Jasey-Jay Anderson rips U.S. snowboarding team for treatment of Vic Wild
Vic Wild won gold for Russia Wednesday in the men's parallel giant slalom, but that medal could have belonged to the United States. Wild competed for the Americans but when the decision was made by the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association to focus on other events, financial support for Wild was drastically cut.
Canadian snowboarder Jasey-Jay Anderson, the previous Olympic gold-medalist in parallel giant slalom, is probably pretty pleased to see Wild walk away with the gold (since he didn't get it himself). Anderson more than understood Wild's decision to join the Russian team after the U.S. slashed his funding.
We talked to Jasey Jay Anderson (CAN) about Wild. JJA: "The way the US treated Vic, I can't blame him at all. It's a huge move ..." more
— lisa dillman (@reallisa) February 19, 2014
Jasey on Wild: "..for an athlete to do that, except he was left in the cold, put out in the cold.Every bad word in the book was done to him"
— lisa dillman (@reallisa) February 19, 2014
JJA on Vic Wild: "... I hope he does well here today just to thumb his...his nose at everyone that actually back-stabbed him"
— lisa dillman (@reallisa) February 19, 2014
More JJA on Vic Wild: "You don't go from being an American citizen to a Russian citizen because it sounds cool."
— lisa dillman (@reallisa) February 19, 2014
Wild had quit the American team and decided he was done with the sport. But, after he married his Russian girlfriend Alena Zavarzina (who won bronze also on Wednesday in ladies' parallel giant slalom) in 2011, Wild was granted citizenship by Russia a year later.