Via Jonathan Ross’s sofa, Lizzy Yarnold was back at the Olympic Stadium to carry the British flag in front of an impassive President Putin, who watched on like an old Soviet leader at a Red Square parade.
Set against the thumping success of these Winter Games for Putin himself, Britain’s medal tally of four is an insignificant footnote. But compared to our record at the previous 19 editions, it is a matter of some pride and hope. We have never done better.
Alas, the four-man bobsleigh could not add a final gloss to the British performance in the closing hours of competition. Yet by finishing fifth they have secured funding for the next four years, providing some constancy going into the next Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Going out with a bang: fireworks at Sunday¿s closing ceremony
Who was up at the Sanki Sliding Centre to watch the Russians beat us at bobsleigh? Vladimir Putin. When Russian skier Maria Komissarova came round after six-and-a-half hours of emergency spinal surgery, who was at the end of her bed wearing a white coat? Putin again.
Only the elimination by Finland of the Russian ice hockey team - a symbol of national virility - cast a shadow on his fortnight of triumph. And even then, as if to show that nothing is beyond his powers, an order was given that the scoreline, for once, should not be beamed on to the stadium roof.
Russia finished with 33 medals, including 13 golds to put themselves top of the table just four years after their least successful Games ever in Vancouver.
Party time: Participants dance during the closing ceremony for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics
Playing their part: The polar bear mascot extinguishes the Olympic Flame during the Closing Ceremony
And at the closing ceremony the stirring national anthem of the Russian Federation was belted out for Alexander Legkov, winner of the cross-country gold medal in a one-two-three for the host nation earlier in the day. Legkov jumped up and down on the podium. Russia had jumped up and down on the world over the space of 16 days, and this was their crowning glory.
Britain’s scale of achievement was smaller. Yarnold, the skeleton heroine, was our only golden victor. She was so controlled and focused that it felt like an inevitability a week last Friday that she would keep her nerve to win the gold under a full moon.
Pride of Britain: Lizzy Yarnold carries the flag for Britain at the closing ceremony
Games over: Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledges the applause of the crowd at the closing ceremony
Add that to the silver for David Murdoch’s male curlers, a bronze for Eve Muirhead’s female equivalents and for Jenny Jones, a 33-year-old veteran in snowboard slopestyle, and this represented our best performance since 1924 in Chamonix, where we won precisely the same number in the same colours.
Just this time it cost £14million in Lottery and Exchequer investment.
The British delegation is young, a point picked up by Lord Coe, chairman of the British Olympic Association, who said: ‘The potential in some events is extraordinary, particularly those which draw from other disciplines. Slopestyle is a good example: we’ve got competitors coming from all sorts of backgrounds such as athletics and gymnastics.
Lighting up the night sky: Fireworks are seen above the Olympic Park after the Closing Ceremony
Spectacular ending: Performers form the Olympic rings during a show at the closing ceremony
‘This is a really good start down a path, but it is only a start.’
Inspiration is important, but so is money. Every sport reached its target, so the big bucks of funding will continue to flow. We are achieving moderate success despite being a country without the climate. Artificial slopes are the nurseries for our future champions. Some move abroad to hone their skills.
Our disadvantage is highlighted by the fact one million Canadians play curling. They have a professional championship. We have 30 clubs, only one of which is in England - Tunbridge Wells, if you fancy it.
Win or lose, the competitors had fun. Take slopestyle. Both the girls and the ‘dudes’ smile endlessly even if they have just missed a medal. It’s nice, but I put it to Coe that he hardly took his defeat in the 800m in Moscow 34 years ago with the same equanimity. He agreed. Hard-edged sport is just not like that.
Missing out: Great Britain fialed to win a medal in the four-man bobsleigh on the final day of competition
Success: IOC President Thomas Bach declared Sochi as 'the athletes¿ Games'
‘These were the athletes’ Games,’ declared Thomas Bach, the IOC president as he closed them. But a great Games? Televisually, yes, I’m told. The opening and closing ceremonies were majestic, apart from the Olympic ring that didn’t want to come out in front of President Putin. The mountain venues were pristine and smart. The buses ran punctually.
At the time of writing, the feared bomb had not gone off. Nor was the security presence pervasive.
But on the negative side: the snow melted, as temperatures at these Riviera Games reached 20°Celsius-plus.
The Olympic Park was too big to buzz. The $30bn budget was absurdly large. And, as an inflatable Russian bear blew out the Olympic flame, the TV in my room still wasn’t working.
FINAL MEDALS TABLE
| COUNTRY | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Russia | 13 | 11 | 9 |
| 2 | Norway | 11 | 5 | 10 |
| 3 | Canada | 10 | 10 | 5 |
| 19 | GB | 1 | 1 | 2 |
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