Who says Russia Doesn't have a Sense of Humour?
Sochi closing ceremony mocks ring that failed to open at beginning of Olympics
- Dancers at the closing ceremony have mocked the moment a ring failed to open during the opening ceremony
- Sochi Winter Games come to a close this evening with baton passed to new hosts South Korea
- The games have been the most expensive in Olympic history at $51billion, topping Beijing
- Team GB earned one more medal than anticipated, and haul of four makes it one of the most successful games
Daily Mail UK, 23 February 2014
Showing that the country has a sense of humour, dancers during the opening section of the show mocked the moment a ring failed to open during the opening ceremony. The closing ceremony, a farewell from Russia with love, pageantry and protocol, starts at 20:14 local time precisely - a nod to the year that President Vladimir Putin attempted to remake Russia's using the Olympics wow factor.
From the opening ceremony with malfunctioning ring, to police officers signing Get Lucky, and of course British gold medallist Lizzy Yarnold winning the women's skeleton, the Sochi Winter Olympics have been a games to remember.
But tonight marks the end for the highly controversial games, which are also the most expensive in Olympic history.
Showing that the country has a sense of humour, dancers during the opening section of the show mocked the moment a ring failed to open during the opening ceremony.
The closing ceremony, a farewell from Russia with love, pageantry and protocol, starts at 20:14 local time precisely - a nod to the year that President Vladimir Putin attempted to remake Russia's using the Olympics wow factor.
Tonight marks the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics. During the first part of the show dancers formed into the Olympic rings, mocking the moment during the opening ceremony when the final ring failed to open
Farewell: The Sochi games have been memorable for controversy, cost and amusement value - such as the failed rings at the opening ceremony - so the closing ceremony tonight is hotly anticipated
The opening part featured a light-show representing the ocean as the children from the opening ceremony rowed across it in a floating boat
Despite being a celebration of everything Russian, the ceremony itself was put together by an Italian, Danele Finzi Pasca
The ceremony will also mark the official handing over of the games to new host city Pyeongchang, in South Korea.
The $51billion (£30bn) investment - topping even Beijing's estimated $40 billion layout for the 2008 Summer Games - transformed a decaying resort town on the Black Sea into a household name.
All-new facilities, unthinkable in the Soviet era of drab shoddiness, showcased how far Russia has come, despite complaints over sub-standard accommodation for visitor and journalists.
A volley of fireworks from the top of the Fisht stadium in the Olympic park marked the end to one of the most memorable games in history
Saw it that time, didn't you?: President Putin watches the closing ceremony, including the moment dancers mocked the ring that didn't open. It was alleged he missed it first time around because Russian TV cut to rehearsal footage
All fixed: As the dancers succeed in forming the complete rings where their technological counterpart failed, more fireworks are let off, this time inside the stadium
Artists dressed in sequined dresses formed various shapes and symbols, including the Olympic rings, during the first part of the opening ceremony
One of Sochi's big successes was security. Feared attacks by Islamic militants who had threatened to target the games didn't materialize.
The Olympic show also failed to win over critics of Russia's backsliding on democracy and human rights under Putin and its institutionalized intolerance of gays.
Despite some bumps along the way, Thomas Bach is expected to use the closing ceremony to deliver an upbeat verdict on the games, his first as International Olympic Committee president.
After the awards, the crowds welcomed the newly-elected members of the international committee and its athlete's election.
80 per cent of the athletes here turned out to vote for these representatives.
Then, four volunteers were handed flowers by the athletes as a thank you.
It is the first time a mass volunteering programme has ever been achieved in Russia.
First place: The Russian team marched into the arena as champions having taken home more medals than any other nation, despite allegations of foul play raised over some events
Not so lucksi: After officers sang Daft Punk's hit Get Lucky during the opening events, many expected a repeat performance, but were instead treated to traditional marching music
The country's flags were carried in by the most usccessful athlete from the team. Lizzy Yarnold, Team GB's golden winner, carried the Union Flag
Show of unity: As part of the Olympic spirit of togetherness, athletes from all countries trooped in together before occupying the front rows of seas
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Flag bearers enter the stadium during the closing ceremony for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, followed by Italian and Canadian athletes
'It's amazing what has happened here,' Bach said a few hours before the ceremony. He recalled that Sochi was an 'old, Stalinist-style sanatorium city' when he visited for the IOC in the 1990s.
'You entered the room and you were looking at the roof so you would not be hit by something falling down,' he said.
As dusk approached Sunday, Russians streamed into Fisht Olympic Stadium for a ceremony that will feature the extinguishing of the Olympic flame.
Day and night, the flame became a favorite backdrop for 'Sochi selfies,' a buzzword born at these games for the fad of athletes and spectators taking DIY souvenir photos of themselves.
Athletes will kiss goodbye to rivals-turned-friends from far off places, savor their games and achievements or rue what might have been.
Absent will be five competitors tossed out after they were caught by what was the most extensive anti-doping program in Winter Olympic history, with the IOC conducting a record 2,453 tests.
The latest controversy centres around Russian skater Adelina Sotnikova who won gold despite allegations of biased and unfair judging
With Russia's ban on homosexual propaganda the event has also attracted controversy, with members of punk protest band Pussy Riot being whipped by cossacks while performing inside the park
Pre-show: The final score of a game of ice hockey is displayed on the side of one of the Olympic stadiums before the closing ceremony
Rehearsals: Thousands of volunteers have been tirelessly rehearsing for weeks in order perfect every last detail of the closing ceremony which starts at 20.14 Russian time to mark the year
BRITISH MEDALLISTS
Thanks to the hard work and efforts of athletes such as Lizzy Yarnold, Britain will walk away from the Sochi games with its joint largest haul of medals ever.
The team target was three, but a gold from Yarnold, one silver and one bronze medal in curling, and another bronze for Jenny Jones in the snowboard slopestyle, meant Team GB earned four.
That is the same number that Britain won at the inaugural games in 1928 and remain the highest ever tally.
The crowd will wave goodbye to the games in Sochi's Fisht Stadium, a jewel of the all-new Olympic Park by the Black Sea, looking up at the snowy Caucasus Mountains where skiers, snowboarders and sliders competed.
The audience is sure to raise the roof for the Russian team when it parades in.
Russia's athletes topped the Sochi medals table, with a record 13 golds and 33 total, though even this was marred with allegations of cheating and unfair judging.
It represented a stunning turnaround from the 2010 Vancouver Games. There, a meagre 3 golds and 15 total for Russia seemed proof of its gradual decline as a winter sports power since Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Russia's bag of Sochi gold was the biggest-ever haul by a non-Soviet team.
Russia's golden run started with aging star Evgeni Plushenko leading Russia to victory in team figure skating. Putin was on hand for that, one of multiple times when he popped up at venues across the games.
Russia's last gold came Sunday in four-man bobsled. The games' signature moment for home fans was Adelina Sotnikova, cool as ice at 17, becoming Russia's first gold medalist in women's Olympic figure skating.
'The success of the home team is always an important part of the success of the games overall,' said Bach.
Lizzy Yarnold brought home Britain's only gold medal of the games, beating her American rival to win the women's skeleton event
Along with Yarnold's win, an unexpected bronze awarded to Jenny Jones (left) in the snowboard slopestyle event meant Britain exceeded its medal expectations
Great Britain's Men's curling team of (left to right) David Murdoch, Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews, Michael Goodfellow and Tom Brewster also won silver in their event
The last gold from the 98 medal events, a Winter Games record, was in ice hockey, with Canada and Sweden competing for it.
Not all of the headlines out of Sochi were about sport. Organizers faced criticism going in about Russia's strict policies toward gays, though once the games were under way, most every athlete chose not to use the Olympic spotlight to campaign for the cause.
And an activist musical group and movement, Pussy Riot, appeared in public and was horsewhipped by Cossack militiamen, drawing international scrutiny.
The games also saw the film Cool Runnings brought to life courtesy of the Jamaican bobsleigh team who had to raise funds in order to pay for their flights to Sochi
The games have also seen their fair share of slips and trips, such as this one involving British hopeful Elise Christie during the speed skating event
And during the last days of competition, Sochi competed for attention with violence in Ukraine, Russia's neighbor and considered a vital sphere of influence by the Kremlin.
In an Associated Press interview on Saturday, Bach singled out Ukraine's victory in women's biathlon relay as 'really an emotional moment' of the games, praising Ukrainian athletes for staying to compete despite the scores dead in protests back home.
'Mourning on the one hand, but knowing what really is going on in your country, seeing your capital burning, and feeling this responsibility, and then winning the gold medal,' he said, 'this really stands out for me.'