Two Koreas march apart as Games close
PYEONGCHANG: The two Koreas marched behind their own flags as the curtain fell yesterday on two weeks of competition against a backdrop of diplomatic manoeuvring at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
At a colourful and cold ceremony, Ivanka Trump sat near to a blacklisted North Korean general and Russian competitors trooped in without their banned flag.
Unlike the Games’ opening, the North and South Korean athletes marched separately and waving their national flags, although some North Koreans held the blue-and-white Korean Unification emblem.
US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka was just a few seats away from North Korea’s Kim Yong Chol, who is accused of masterminding attacks on South Korea and is blacklisted by Seoul.
As the show got underway, South Korea’s presidential Blue House relayed that Chol’s delegation had said North Korea was “very willing” to hold talks with America.
It was the latest conciliatory move by North Korea during the Games, where Kim Jong Un’s sister attended the opening ceremony and the two Koreas formed their first joint Olympic team, in women’s ice hockey.
After a successful drone display — following an aborted attempt at the opening ceremony, where recorded images were broadcast instead — International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach handed out medals from the final day.
Topless Tongan cross-country skier Pita Taufatofua made a cameo appearance, greased in his trademark coconut oil, before Bach declared the Games — one of the coldest on record — closed.
“You have shown how sport brings people together in our fragile world; you have shown how sport builds bridges,” Bach told the Korean athletes.
“The Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 are the Games of new horizons,” he added.
Winter Olympics legend Marit Bjoergen won the final gold of Pyeongchang in the women’s 30km cross-country yesterday — putting Norway top of the table over Germany, on overall medals won.
It was a fitting send-off for the Games and for Bjoergen, 37, who completes her Olympic career with a record-breaking 15 medals and was one of the stars of the 16 days of competition.
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.
South Korea fell agonisingly short in their fairytale bid for women’s curling gold, beaten 8-3 in the final by Sweden.