Sergey Ovchinnikov, the head coach of Russia’s women’s Olympic volleyball team was found dead this morning in his hotel room of an apparent suicide. Friends believe that his team’s failure at the Olympics may have had to do with the suicide. From RT.com:

“This is so stupid,” Kuzyutkin told the RSN radio station. “He was my friend, my colleague. No one said a bad word about him. Yes, there was a blunder at the Olympics, well, to hell with it. I don’t know why he couldn’t cope with it.”

The head coach of the men’s volleyball team, Vladimir Alekno, confirmed that the London failure was a huge blow for Ovchinnikov.

“He took the Olympics very personally,” Alekno said. “I saw what he was going through and how upset he was after the defeat. He didn’t talk much. Even after victories he was always thinking about something and smoked a lot.“

Ovchinnikov was at training camp in Croatia with Dynamo Moscow, a Russian volleyball club. Russia was one of the favorites going into the London Olympics, but failed to make the medal round.

[RT]