Closing Games

I just watched the Closing Ceremony of the Winter Games in Sochi. I still don't understand why they were shown hours after they actually happened. Unlike, when I made two entries for the Opening Ceremonies I will only make one for the Closing as they were much shorter. I would estimate that 90% of the 2 hour show were commercials while only 10% were entertainment or ceremony. I don't blame the Russians for that (it was NBC showing it to the US.)

At the beginning of the Ceremony they tried to make fun of the Olympic symbol being messed-up in the Opening Ceremony and it wasn't funny. It simply showed that they made a mistake the first time (although ordinary Russians watching at home didn't see it as the Russian broadcaster replaced it with their practice footage.)

There was the same creepy old Russian announcer (speaking after the French and English announcers.) I don't know who he is, but he was not the best person for the job. If I didn't know Russian and couldn't understand what he was saying I would think he was calling on all the children to come into his van for some candy.

The US announcers seemed second-rate (like Matt Lauer and his crew left Sochi early.) They also had Vladimir Posner hosting with them. Posner is French/Soviet-Russian and American and lived in the USSR for most of his adult life. He talked like he had forgotten his teeth and was having trouble speaking. Also, when he was saying Russian names he didn't have an authentic Russian accent.

The Russian Olympic medal winners didn't seem to know the words of the Russian National Anthem and many were simply moving their mouths. I was in Russia when Putin showed Russians their new Anthem in 2000 (it's the same tune as the Soviet Anthem, but has different words.) A poll done around the country showed that less than 39% of Russians knew the new lyrics, but liked the tune. You would think that if you were going to be on television singing the Anthem you would learn the words.

Russian President Vladimir Putin looked tired and bored throughout the whole ceremony. Not like he looked at the Opening Ceremony.

The Parade of Nations went ok - nothing really great about a bunch of people walking out all at once. I miss the cool floor map from the Opening Ceremony.

The main part of the Ceremony was about Russian culture. They started with Marc Chagall (who wasn't even Russian - he was Jewish born in Belarus.) They then did Russian ballet which was good. The Russian literature part was decent.

The Ceremony then went to the different representatives. The Mayor of Sochi (Anatoly Pakomov) was a little too excited to be in the spotlight and couldn't stop waving. He is the man who said there were "no gay people in Sochi." I guess he never watched figure skating. The IOC President gave a typical German address with only the facts and no emotions yet what was ironic is that in his speech he talked about the "shared emotions" of the athletes from around the world. 

The Ceremony ended with a weird "mirror world" dealing with reflection and a bunch of talk about the Olympic mascots (especially the bear) and how the bear was in the 1980 Olympics in the Soviet Union which was boycotted by over 30 countries including the US.

All-in-all the Closing Ceremonies seemed to be an after-thought. While a lot of time, effort and money were put into the Opening Ceremony and you could tell the Closing Ceremony was just there. Now for the next Winter Games in South Korea in 2018.