Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre), International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach (third left) of Germany, former IOC President Jacques Rogge (left) of Belgium and Russia’s gold medallist bobsleigh athlete Alexander Zubkov (third right) applaud with others during the closing ceremony for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, in Sochi, Russia, yesterday.
SOCHI, Russia: The Winter Olympics drew to a close with host nation Russia on top of the medals table and Canada winning the men’s ice hockey final, but news that two more athletes have tested positive for a banned substance dimmed the golden glow.
Canada claimed the last, most coveted title of the Games by sweeping aside Sweden 3-0 to retain their men’s hockey crown, but two more victories for Russia gave them an unassailable lead with 13 golds to Norway’s 11.
Sweden’s misery was compounded by news that forward Nicklas Backstrom had failed a doping test. Backstrom missed the gold medal game against Canada.
At the Sanki Sliding Centre, Alexander Zubkov added the four-man bobsleigh crown to his two-man title, while on the cross-country skiing track, Alexander Legkov grabbed the 50 km race in a Russian medals sweep.
That win ensured Russia was the most successful nation at the Games, emulating the Canadians who topped the rankings on home turf four years earlier.
“People kept asking me whether I believed Russia could do as well as Canada did in Vancouver ... and I didn’t believe it,” 30-year-old Legkov told a news conference.
“Now this is our pride, it’s wonderful. What could be better than ending the Olympics with a gold medal and helping Russia top the medal table?”
Organisers will be delighted that athletic achievement has gone hand-in-hand with a generally well-run Games, so far untouched by violence at the hands of Islamist militants opposed to President Vladimir Putin and his pet project.
Voices of dissent over Russia’s human rights record, particularly regarding legislation that critics say discriminates against gays, have occasionally crashed the party, but attention has largely focused on sport.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the Russian hosts had proved their critics wrong.
“We saw excellent Games and what counts most is the opinions of the athletes and they were enormously satisfied,” he said.
The Games had more than 2,800 athletes from 88 countries — both records — and featured 12 new events to attract younger fans and more broadcasters than ever before.
However, the Games have also seen six doping cases, five more than at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Early yesterday Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Duerr, who placed eighth in the skiathlon, tested positive for performance-boosting EPO and was excluded from the Games, according to the Austrian Olympic Committee.
“There’s nothing left for me than to apologise to everyone. To my family, my wife,” Duerr told Austrian TV ORF at the airport as he was leaving.
Bach said the number of cases proved that the system of testing athletes was working.
“The number of cases for me is not really relevant. What is important is that we see that the system works,” he said.
Bach spoke hours before the closing ceremony at the Fisht Stadium, one of several gleaming arenas built in Sochi that helped push the price tag for Russia’s first Winter Games to an estimated $51bn, a record for any Olympics.
Only time will tell if the project, on which Putin has staked much of his prestige, was worth it, as Russia faces the formidable challenge of turning Sochi and the surrounding areas into a year-round sports and entertainment hub. Bach said Sochi had undergone an “amazing transformation” from somewhere that looked more like a “Stalinist-style sanatorium city” in the mid-1990s to an Olympic host city with state-of-the-art venues.
“It was terrible then. Seeing it 20 years after this transformation is amazing.”
For now Russian officials are basking in the glory of an event they believe has helped them build bridges with the West, with which Moscow has had uneasy relations under Putin.Reuters
