Golden finish for Norway
Games end with celebration of future; Russia athletes don’t march under national flag
The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games reached their grand finale on Sunday, with the closing ceremony highlighting the Olympic spirit of adventure while presenting a vision of the future and a message of peace.
The competition wrapped up on Sunday with host South Korea having set its Winter Olympics medals record with 17 — five gold, eight silver and four bronze medals, good for seventh place.
Norway led all countries with 39 medals, including 14 gold medals. Germany also captured 14 gold medals but had eight fewer medals in total than Norway.
North Korea, represented by its Winter Olympics record 22 athletes, didn’t win any medal, though it was hailed in some quarters as delivering the message of peace by its mere presence here.
Held under the slogan, “Passion, Connected,” PyeongChang 2018 was the first Winter Olympics in South Korea and the largest ever, with 2,920 athletes representing 92 nations.
There were a record 102 gold medals at 12 venues in PyeongChang and its neighbouring cities of Gangneung and Jeongseon.
Athletes and officials gathered at the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium for one last big party. PyeongChang’s organisers said the closing ceremony, put together by executive creative director Song Seung-whan, was titled “The Next Wave.”
It referred to the sense of adventure that compels people to challenge themselves to reach greater heights, PyeongChang said.
The ceremony mixed traditional Korean imagery with modern aesthetics while also presenting its future vision of Korea through K-pop productions.
And unlike at the opening ceremony, the athletes all marched into the stadium in no particular order.
Compared to the Parade of Nations at the opening ceremony, the Parade of Athletes at the closing ceremony was designed to symbolize all competitors coming together as one nation.
And since there was no formal parade for participating countries, South Korea and North Korea didn’t have a joint march behind one flag as they did at the opening ceremony.
Speed skater Lee Seunghoon, the inaugural men’s mass start champion, was the flagbearer for South Korea, and figure skater Kim Ju-sik had the honour for North Korea.
Lee became Asia’s all-time leader in Olympic speed skating medals with five, by taking the mass start gold and team pursuit silver here.
Kim teamed up with Ryom Tae-ok to finish 13th in the pairs, the North’s highest position in its Olympic figure skating history.
PyeongChang handed over the Olympic Flag to Beijing, host of the next Winter Games in 2022.
It will be the first time that two consecutive Winter Games will be staged in Asia. Beijing, the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, put on an eightminute cultural presentation directed by renowned filmmaker Zhang Yimou.
At the end of the ceremony, the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium turned into a huge outdoor club with electronic dance music (EMD) thumping through the chilly night. South Korea’s own DJ Raiden and Dutch EDM star Martin Garrix helped bring the night to a wild finish.
Winter Olympics legend Marit Bjoergen lifted Norway top of the final Pyeongchang medals table on Sunday, as Russia celebrated a dramatic men’s hockey gold — but also saw their flag barred from the closing ceremony over doping.
Bjoergen, 37, won her second gold and fifth medal at Pyeongchang in the women’s 30km cross country mass start, extending her record Winter Olympics career tally to 15.
It was a fitting finale as it handed Norway their 14th gold to overtake Germany in the final medal count, after the German team won the four-man bobsleigh earlier on Sunday.
Germany also finish on 14 golds, but Norway take top spot with their record 39 medals overall to Germany’s 31. Canada are third with 11 golds, while hosts South Korea are seventh.
Norway’s celebrations capped a dramatic final day of competition that saw the Olympics Athletes from Russia beat Germany 4-3 in a sudden-death, overtime hockey thriller.
Kirill Kaprizov scored a thumping power-play goal 9:40 into the extra period to trigger wild celebrations and end a 26-year wait for the title to return to Russian hands.
The Russian players were heard singing the Russian national anthem on the ice — apparently contravening rules governing their participation as neutrals, following a major doping scandal.
However, the International Olympic Committee had already voted to maintain Russia’s ban pending the results of final dope tests from Pyeongchang, meaning the Russians cannot wave their national flag at closing ceremony.
Altogether 168 Russian athletes including the ice hockey players were deemed “clean” and allowed to compete as neutrals in Pyeongchang, despite the suspension of Russia’s national Olympic committee.
But two Russians tested positive for doping during the Olympics and IOC president Thomas Bach said as a result, the ban could not be lifted for the closing ceremony.
“This was hugely disappointing and does not permit the IOC to envisage lifting the suspension of Russia for the closing ceremony,” Bach said, referring to the positive tests.
The men’s ice hockey win brought Russia’s total gold medal haul to two, far behind their dope-tainted haul of 13 at Sochi.
Then in the final event of the Games, Norway’s Bjoergen claimed her second gold in Pyeongchang as she signed off from her record-breaking Olympic career in style.
The cross-country legend won convincingly, 1min 49.5sec ahead of ahead of Finland’s Krista Parmakoski, with Stina Nilsson of Sweden taking bronze.
Bjoergen had already become the most decorated athlete in Winter Olympics history with her 14th medal on Wednesday, outstripping fellow Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who has 13 in biathlon.
Altogether 168 Russian athletes including the ice hockey players were deemed ‘clean’ and allowed to compete as neutrals in Pyeongchang