The Sochi Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony
After three fantastic weeks of athletic prowess, the Sochi Winter Olympics came to a close last night with a glittering Closing Ceremony, featuring dancing, speeches and fireworks.
Everyone remembers the slight embarrassment Russia suffered when a technical malfunction meant the final Olympic ring didn’t open during the Opening Ceremony, but during the Closing Ceremony the organisers were able to laugh at themselves a little bit. They had a scene in which dancers recreated the opening of the rings and opened the final one really slowly, just for comedic effect!
These games were the most expensive Olympics ever, but Sochi proved to be worth every penny for incredible feats of endurance and skill, which saw Russia top the medal table by the end of the games. The host nation walked away with 33 medals, seven more than second placed Norway.
They may not have won the hockey like they wanted, but Team Russia won 13 golds, 11 silvers and 9 bronze medals, to earn first place out of a record total of 88 nations.
There may have been a lot of negative press about the games regarding the hotels not being finished in time and the slightly odd bathrooms but overall the games were a huge success, with the IOC (International Olympics Committee) President, Thomas Bach, declaring the games “a real special experience”. He also thanked Putin, who even managed a smile or two, personally for his contributions to the “extraordinary success”.
Russia did exceedingly well, with gold in the bobsleigh and a clean sweep of the podium for the 50km cross country skiing on the last day to end the games with a real dose of success!
As such, the Closing Ceremony had an atmosphere of pure celebration, with ballet from the Bolshoi Theatre, music by Rachmaninov and tributes to Tolstoy and Kandinsky.
Jade Mitchell-Ross is an English student, currently on an internship while studying Russian at Liden & Denz
