Ashley Wagner needs a publicist

American figure skater Ashley Wagner has not metaled on the podium yet, but she has quickly earned the title of most outspoken athlete at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Courtesy Bsiness Insider

Despite delivering two clean performances with no falls or mistakes, Wagner finished 7th in the ladies short program competition after Russians Adelina Sotnikova and Yulia Lipnitskaya,  former gold medalist Yuna Kim of South Korea, Mao Asada of Japan and American teammate Gracie Gold, who ALL fell in at least one of their two scored performances.

Wagner, like many other skating critics and judges, felt the Russians, who took first and fifth, were given unfairly inflated scores, and she was not shy to reveal her frustrations at the Iceberg Skating Palace.

"I feel gypped," Wagner said in a mixture of anger and disappointment. "People don't want to watch a sport where you see people fall down and somehow score above someone who goes clean."

Wagner's frustrations were undoubtedly aimed at Lipnikskaya, the 15-year-old Russian sensation who excelled in the team event, but cracked under the surmounting pressure of the women's singles, tumbling to the ice in both performances.

Wagner continued to slam the institution of anonymous judging, inferring that the Russians, on home ice with connected judges, had an advantage that couldn't be overcome by performances.

"People need to be held accountable," she said in a post-scoring interview. "I came into this event knowing pretty well that that was how it was going to go. It is not fair to the skaters who work so hard to become noticed if they are not going to have a sport that backs up what they are doing."

Some argue that Wagner is asking all the right questions about the highly controversial judging techniques. I argue that she could be asking them a little more tastefully.

Let's be clear -- Wagner is not just being a sore loser. Her assessment of the way things played out on the Sochi ice is valid. But what Wagner really needs is a good publicist who will dig his nails into her back and tell her to keep her mouth shut until the cameras are off.

 In a sport that values grace as necessity, Ashley Wagner is ice skating's Gov. Chris Christie.

This week's outburst was only the latest in a blunder of outrage that has followed her every performance. Following her score delivery in the first ice-skating event of the games, the team composite event, Wagner delivered the now-infamous disgust face (move over McKayla Maroney memes.)

Courtesy Deadspin.com

She was even filmed in the Kiss & Cry booth mouthing some choice language for the judges.

You can't buy class, folks.