If the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony was a love letter to Italian heritage, the ultimate day was a thunderous operatic finale, a crescendo of clashing sticks, hovering amplitude and the bittersweet tears of legends taking their ultimate bows. Because the solar dipped behind the peaks of the Dolomites for the final time this fortnight, the Olympic flame didn’t simply flicker out – it was handed from the high-fashion streets of Milan to the traditional stones of Verona.
The ultimate day’s headline act was the lads’s ice hockey ultimate which the burden of a 46-year ghost. Pitting the US in opposition to Canada, the competition fell precisely on the anniversary of the 1980 Miracle on Ice. There was no want for a miracle this time, simply the surgical precision of Jack Hughes. After Matt Boldy opened the scoring within the first interval, the sport reworked right into a goaltending masterclass by Connor Hellebuyck, who turned apart 40 Canadian pictures in regular time.
Canada, taking part in with out the injured Sidney Crosby AKA Captain Canada, discovered an equaliser by Cale Makar late within the second, however the golden objective belonged to Hughes. In time beyond regulation, he slotted the puck residence, securing a 2-1 victory and the primary American males’s gold since Lake Placid. “Unbelievable recreation. Unreal recreation by our crew,” stated Hughes. “Only a ballsy, gutsy win. That’s American hockey proper there. That’s an incredible Canadian crew, however we’re USA, we’re so proud to be Individuals. Tonight was all for our nation.”
Hughes, who performs for the New Jersey Devils within the NHL, misplaced his entrance tooth earlier than scoring the time beyond regulation objective after taking a excessive follow the mouth from Canada’s Sam Bennett. “My first thought was to attract the penalty,” Hughes stated. “Really, my first thought was, I appeared down the ice and noticed my tooth and I used to be like, right here we go once more. I’m simply glad we acquired out of that pickle.”
The ice on the curling stadium hosted a distinct type of drama: the Swedish Circus. Anna Hasselborg’s rink, that includes three moms who had all given start throughout this Olympic cycle, defeated Switzerland 6-5 in a tactical nailbiter to win the ladies’s ultimate. Hasselborg, now solely the second girl to win two Olympic golds as a skip, managed to please her most necessary critic – her daughter – who advised her earlier than the Olympics that “it’s so boring if you don’t have a medal”.
“I feel they may even bear in mind this week,” Hasselborg stated of her youngsters. “They understood there was one thing huge taking place … I’m so proud to have the ability to present them that something is feasible.
“Turning into a mom, it’s not at all times simple to search out that stability in motivation and that you just need to have the combating spirit as a result of turning into a mother is a lot extra necessary than all the pieces else,” Hasselborg stated of herself and her teammates, the three of which turned pregannt agter successful bronze Beijing 2022. “However we discovered it on the proper time.”
Within the half-pipe at Livigno, the environment was equally electrical after China’s Eileen Gu defended her title with a rating of 94.75, cementing her standing as essentially the most embellished freeskier in Olympic historical past with six profession medals. The 22-year-old revealed after the ultimate that she had realized of her grandmother’s passing simply after successful gold. “She was a steamship,” Gu stated. “This girl commanded life, and he or she grabbed it by the reins, and he or she made it into what she wished it to be. She impressed me a lot. The final time I noticed her earlier than I got here to the Olympics. She was very sick, so I knew that this was a chance. I didn’t in all probability say that I used to be going to win, however I did promise her that I used to be going to be courageous. She’s been courageous.”
Sharing the rostrum was Nice Britain’s Zoe Atkin, who matched her sister Izzy’s 2018 achievement by snagging bronze. Atkin flew, reaching a staggering 5.4m (18 ft) above the pipe – the best amplitude of the day.
The ultimate medal desk noticed Norway as soon as once more reign supreme with 18 golds and 40 whole medals, fuelled largely by Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who achieved an unprecedented six-for-six gold medal sweep in cross-country snowboarding. The USA completed a powerful second with 12 golds, whereas the hosts, Italy, celebrated a record-breaking residence Video games with 30 medals.
Because the competitors wound down, it dawned that this was the final time we might see a lot of our favourites in elite competitors. Kaori Sakamoto of Japan impressed a era of determine skaters in her nation, bowing out with a silver medal and the honour as the one ladies’s singles skater from her nation to compete at three Video games. Canada’s Mikaël Kingsbury bowed out in fashion with gold within the freestyle snowboarding twin moguls, clinching a second profession Olympic gold. Jessie Diggins retires as essentially the most embellished American cross-country skier ever. And a trailblazer for Nice Britain on the Video games, the Alpine skier Dave Ryding stated of his determination to step away: “I’m prepared for the change. I actually assume the subsequent 15 years of British snowboarding are taken care of. It is going to solely get an increasing number of thrilling.”
The Video games concluded within the 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre in Verona with a closing ceremony that celebrated Italian opera and payed tribute to modern Italian classics. The Unesco web site hosted a spectacle of dance and LED lights _ changing conventional fireworks to guard native wildlife. The Italian singer Achille Lauro and ballet star Roberto Bolle bridged the hole between the vintage and the avant garde, whereas the Olympic flag was handed over to the mayor of Good for 2030. Arrivederci, Italy. Subsequent cease: The French Alps.
The ultimate desk
The total emoji medal desk in all of its glory. Try our official medal desk right here to see what occasions every nation received.
1 🇳🇴 Norway 🥇 18 🥈 12 🥉 11 – Complete: 41
2 🇺🇸 United States 🥇 12 🥈 12 🥉 9 – Complete: 33
3 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🥇 10 🥈 7 🥉 3 – Complete: 20
4 🇮🇹 Italy 🥇 10 🥈 6 🥉 14 – Complete: 30
5 🇩🇪 Germany 🥇 8 🥈 10 🥉 8 – Complete: 26
6 🇫🇷 France 🥇 8 🥈 9 🥉 6 – Complete: 23
7 🇸🇪 Sweden 🥇 8 🥈 6 🥉 4 – Complete: 18
8 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🥇 6 🥈 9 🥉 8 – Complete: 23
9 🇦🇹 Austria 🥇 5 🥈 8 🥉 5 – Complete: 18
10 🇯🇵 Japan 🥇 5 🥈 7 🥉 12 – Complete: 24
11 🇨🇦 Canada 🥇 5 🥈 7 🥉 9 – Complete: 21
12 🇨🇳 China 🥇 5 🥈 4 🥉 6 – Complete: 15
13 🇰🇷 South Korea 🥇 3 🥈 4 🥉 3 – Complete: 10
14 🇦🇺 Australia 🥇 3 🥈 2 🥉 1 – Complete: 6
15 🇬🇧 Nice Britain 🥇 3 🥈 1 🥉 1 – Complete: 5
16 🇨🇿 Czech Republic 🥇 2 🥈 2 🥉 1 – Complete: 5
17 🇸🇮 Slovenia 🥇 2 🥈 1 🥉 1 – Complete: 4
18 🇪🇸 Spain 🥇 1 🥈 0 🥉 2 – Complete: 3
19 🇧🇷 Brazil 🥇 1 🥈 0 🥉 0 – Complete: 1
19 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan 🥇 1 🥈 0 🥉 0 – Complete: 1
— 🟦 AIN* 🥇 0 🥈 1 🥉 0 – Complete: 1
21 🇵🇱 Poland 🥇 0 🥈 3 🥉 1 – Complete: 4
22 🇳🇿 New Zealand 🥇 0 🥈 2 🥉 1 – Complete: 3
23 🇫🇮 Poland 🥇 0 🥈 1 🥉 5 – Complete: 6
24 🇱🇻 Latvia 🥇 0 🥈 1 🥉 1 – Complete: 2
25 🇩🇰 Denmark 🥇 0 🥈 1 🥉 0 – Complete: 1
25 🇪🇪 Estonia 🥇 0 🥈 1 🥉 0 – Complete: 1
25 🇬🇪 Georgia 🥇 0 🥈 1 🥉 0 – Complete: 1
28 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 🥇 0 🥈 0 🥉 2 – Complete: 2
29 🇧🇪 Belgium 🥇 0 🥈 0 🥉 1 – Complete: 1
*AIN is the official code for Particular person Impartial Athletes, the identify used to signify accepted Russian and Belarusian athletes. The IOC doesn’t embody Particular person Impartial Athletes within the official medal desk.
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What to look out for subsequent
The Olympics could also be coming to an in depth, however competitors will proceed when the Paralympics start on 6 March, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Winter Paralympic Video games. Keep tuned for our protection.
The final phrase
We’re so overjoyed that we can not really feel how drained we’re –
the Guardian sports activities deskItaly’s most senior Olympic official, Giovanni Malagò, after receiving a standing ovation from his fellow IOC members at their games-closing assembly.
Many because of all our readers and subscribers. We hope you loved studying the briefing as a lot as we loved placing it collectively for the previous two weeks. Hit reply or e mail OlympicBriefing@theguardian.com to get in contact.
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