Winter Olympics Gold Medals capped in Verona as Klæbo completes sweep

At the Arena di Verona on Sunday, two weeks of competition ended with 116 sets of winter olympics gold medals handed out across 16 sports, as an evening of opera, acrobatics and fire closed the Milan Cortina Games.

Arena di Verona’s ancient stage hosted the finale

The ceremony took place inside the Arena di Verona, a stone amphitheater built about 2, 000 years ago that survived an earthquake in 1117 and a later stint as a quarry, its stone arches dating back to the first century AD forming the backdrop for the closing show.

Ceremony mixed opera characters, costumes, acrobatics and pyrotechnics

The event offered opera characters, elaborate costumes, opera singing, acrobatics and dance, with pyrotechnics described simply as Fire; Calibro 35, one of Italy’s iconic alternative bands, played live onstage while athletes paraded in a single long throng rather than the hours-long parade of nations at the opening ceremony.

Winter Olympics Gold Medals and the 50k podium

The medal program culminated with the grueling 50k cross-country skiing awards presented on the arena stage: women’s gold went to Sweden’s Ebba Andersson, who came back from a two-fall, broken ski performance last week to take the win, and men’s gold went to Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who swept all six men’s cross-country skiing competitions and set a new all-time Winter Olympic gold medal record. Across the Games, 116 sets of winter olympics gold medals were awarded across 16 sports, and Norway, which won the most overall medals and the most golds during these Games, swept the men’s 50k podium, taking all three of the final medals handed out at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Athletes loosened up on the final night

With competition over, hundreds of athletes came into the arena looser and celebratory: one German athlete entered lifted overhead by her teammate, Latvia’s athletes performed a synchronized dance with hands on hips while spinning each other around, and multiple members of Team USA entered perched on teammates’ shoulders.

Coventry’s closing remarks and a recent controversy

International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry closed the Games with an attempt at unity and sentimentality, telling the athletes, “This is the true Olympic spirit, competing, embracing, lifting each other up, whatever the result, you showed us what excellence, respect and friendship look like in a world that often forgets these values. ” Coventry has faced controversy for the decision to ban Ukraine’s Vladsylav Heraskevych, who insisted on competing with a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed since Russia’s invasion but was disallowed because of IOC rules prohibiting political statements during competition.

Closing brought the scattered Games back together

If the opening ceremony emphasized the unprecedented spread-out nature of these Games, scattered across Milan and Cortina with mountain towns in between, the closing ceremony gathered thousands in Verona: thousands of athletes, coaches, staff, volunteers, journalists and fans drove winding roads down from the mountains or took trains from the cities to attend the finale.

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