By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport, Salt Lake City

The president of the Russian National Olympic Committee threatened to withdraw his team from the Winter Games and even from the whole Olympic movement as the country's anger at a number of controversial decisions reached boiling point.

Leonid Tyagachev met with International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge last night and said the Russians were ready to "leave the Olympic Village" unless judges and officials "stop making toys of our athletes".

The Russians called the decision last week to award retrospective gold medals to Canadian figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier before the International Skating Union had had time to hold a proper inquiry an "outrage".

They were also angered by officiating during the men's ice hockey quarter-final against the Czech Republic, which Russia won.

And yesterday the Russian 4x5km women's cross-country relay team were forced to withdraw from their event before it started because team member Larissa Lazutina was ruled to have a blood haemoglobin level well above the allowed level. Excess haemoglobin is considered a health risk, not a doping offence.

Tyagachev said Rogge could avert any major action if he sent letters of inquiry to each of the federations of the sports involved, and also to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Tyagachev said: "We took our great sport and assembled it grain by grain through summer and winter then we find ourselves in the situation of a greatly unobjective attitude towards Russia.

"I must officially state that in the case of the unobjective attitude towards us, a failure to resolve our women's relay ski race, to investigate the unobjective hockey judging, then Russia should not participate in the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

"If Russia is not needed in Olympic sport, we're ready to leave the Olympic Village. Perhaps then we would unite the higher achievement of sport within the circle of those people who are interested in clean competition... with good judges."

Rogge responded by doing what Tyagachev asked of him and sending a letter to Putin.

IOC Secretary General Francois Carrard said Rogge assured Putin in the letter than he had personally checked with the three federations involved and "reassured him (Putin) that the calls were absolutely correct."

Tyagachev added that it was not just Russia who had been affected, citing China, Ukraine and South Korea.

The Koreans are seething at the disqualification of Kim Dong-Sung from last night's 1000metres short-track speedskating final after he crossed the line first. The decision gave gold to American Apolo Anton Ohno.

The Koreans have officially protested to International Skating Union president Ottavio Cinquanta, who was instrumental in awarding the second gold to the Canadian figure skaters. They want Kim awarded gold.

In their letter the Koreans said: "Apolo Anton Ohno... made a kind of strange appeal gesture as if he had been blocked unfairly. (Ohno acted) improperly and deliberately when he realised he could not overtake Kim.

"As a result, the referee disqualified Kim after he won the race properly and fairly abiding by the ISU rules. It is our appeal and request that the above obvious misjudgement be corrected by the ISU, and Kim's victory be urgently redeemed by awarding an Olympic gold medal to Kim Dong-Sung, who won the race."

American Sarah Hughes won gold in the women's figure skating, pipping a Russian, Irina Slutskaya, though there was little controversy about the result.

But the Americans did not have it all their own way. In the women's ice hockey final, Canada pulled off a momentous upset to grab gold with a 3-2 win.