Elise Christie's coach has criticised the decision to strip the 23-year-old of a medal in the Olympic short track 500m women's speed skating final earlier today, deeming the referee's call "controversial".

During her first lap, the 23-year-old nudged into Italy's Arianna Fontana, who in turn wiped out South Korea's Park Sueng-Hi in the process.

"The Olympic Games always throws up controversial results," Nick Gooch told reporters. "It is one of these things. It is a race – bumps happen – the referee watches the video and they make a call on what they think.

"We look at it from our perspective and you could argue it until the cows come home it would make no difference. You can appeal it, you can make an official written warning but it is not going to make a difference.

"The way the referee looks at it, is that Elise instigated the crash. Clearly she was knocked off her feet by the Italian girl but the way the referee looks at it, it was that Elise instigated and caused the crash."

Christie fought back tears as she disputed the decision, claiming that Fontana had hit her first.