World goes its separate ways as Winter Olympics conclude
Warmhearted South Korean hosts provide 16-day global tension thaw
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — One of the major concerns before the Pyeongchang Olympics was that the weather would be too cold for anyone to feel comfortable. Even by Minnesota standards, it was frigid, with the windchill dropping to the double digits below zero in the small South Korean towns tucked between the mountains and the sea.
Theweather,asitturnedout,was no match for the hosts. Pyeongchang closed one of the more gracious, efficient and warmhearted Olympics in recent memory Sunday, ending South Korea’s first Winter Games with a joyous celebration of a job well done.
Unlike recent Olympics overshadowed by dirty air and water, unfinished venues, broken budgets and corruption, Pyeongchang ran the world’s largest sporting event in remarkably efficient fashion. An Olympics that began with a hint of a thaw in relations between South and North Korea ended with a promise to continue pursuing diplomacy, as the two nations again marched into Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium together.
Jessie Diggins, of Afton, Minnesota, whowonthefirst-evergoldmedal for the United States in cross-country skiing, was among athletes from 92nationswhoparadedtheirflags
one last time before saying goodbye. It seemed fitting that the mountain temperature was higher than it had been in days, on a night when thousands of athletes and visitors thanked Pyeongchang for its hospitality.
“Thank you for warming our hearts, eveninthecoldesttemperatures,” said International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in his closing speech. “To the gracious hosts, the people of Korea, I say thank you.”
Sunday’s speeches were heavy on
GAMES to seventh in the conference . The top five teams receive byes into the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament, leaving the Rebels with a slim chance of securing one with only two games left.
New Mexico (15-14, 10-6) has won three consecutive games and is in fourth place.
“I feel bad for my guys because I felt like we played well enough to win on the road, which is a challenge,” UNLV coach Marvin Menzies said.
Point guard Jordan Johnson, who equaled a career high with 25 points while adding nine assists and six rebounds, led the Rebels. Shakur Juiston added 18 points and 13 rebounds and Brandon Mccoy bounced back from first-half foul issues to finish with 15 points and eight boards.
UNLV did not make any players available postgame because of time constraints.
New Mexico coach Paul Weir said Johnson’s performance was remarkable.
“That might have been the best point guard against our press we’ve seen in conference play,” Weir said. “He played really well. You have to give him a lot of credit. We had to adjust over the course of the game. We made a couple of different adjustments and we still had difficulty stopping him.”
Johnson started the final sequence of near-misses following a timeout with 10 seconds left after a 3-point
UNLV
references to sports as a means to peace. The fear that North Korea would disrupt the games was a significant worry until North Korean leader Kim Jong Un decided at the last minute to send a delegation of 22 athletes, along with cheerleaders, musicians and government officials.
Many South Koreans were skeptical of
Kim’s motives, but they were captivated by the spirit of the unified Korean women’s hockey team, which became one of the most popular storylines of the games. Women in all sports found more opportunity at these Olympics, constituting 41.5 percent of the athletes — the largest proportion ever.
Norway led all nations with 39 medals, a Winter Games record. The last one came Sunday afternoon in the final competition, the women’s cross-country 30-kilometer mass start classic, and it carried special meaning. Marit Bjoergen won by nearly two minutes to conclude her fifth and final Olympics with her eighth career gold medal, tying the Olympic record.
On her way into the Alpensia stadium, Bjoergen, 37, swapped one of her ski poles for a large Norwegian flag and waved it to the crowd as she reached the finish line. Bjoergen medaled in all five of her events in Pyeongchang and pushed her career total to 15 medals,
the most in Olympic history.
Norway and Germany tied for the most gold medals with 14 each. The U.S. finished fourth in both gold medals (nine) and total medals (23), its smallest medal count at a Winter Games since 1998.
Alan Ashley, chief of sport performance for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said he was not dwelling on the numbers. He noted that American athletes finished between fourth and sixth place 35 times.
“We always want to do better,” Ashley said. “But I’m probably more encouraged than
I’ve ever been, even though people say, ‘You didn’t hit your medal count.’ I look at this as an opportunity for us. And the way (the U.S. athletes) represented their country, their families and their communities has been truly fantastic.”
Some familiar problems persisted, with doping at the top of the list. The Russians were forced to continue wearing their scarlet OAR at the ceremony, the acronym for “Olympic Athlete from Russia.”
The IOC left the door open for Russia to march under its flag at the closing ceremony, but two positive drug tests during the games slammed it shut.
The decision angered many Russian fans, who turned out in droves in Pyeongchang with giant flags in their hands and chips on their shoulders. Their country, typically a Winter Olympics power, finished with only two gold medals and 17 overall.