Norway has once again topped the Winter Olympics medal table, surpassing countries with far larger populations,The Scandinavian country won more gold medals (18) and more total medals (41) than the US, who came second in both categories (12 golds and 33 total medals),Norway’s 18 golds were the most by a country in Winter Olympics history, while their cross-country skiing hero Johannes Høsflot Klæbo accounted for six golds on his own, more than the all but seven other countries at this year’s Games,The achievements of Norway, which has a population of about 5,7m, are all the more remarkable given that they outperformed winter-sports nations with far larger populations such as the US (342m), China (1.

4bn), Germany (84m), Italy (59m) and Canada (40m),The Netherlands, which excels in speed skating, also punched above its weight, finishing with 10 golds – the same as host nation Italy – despite its relatively small population of around 18m,It was also a good Olympics for countries with modest winter sports traditions,Great Britain enjoyed its best ever medal haul at a Winter Olympics with three golds, a silver and a bronze, as did Australia (three golds, two silver and a bronze),Quite a haunting rendition it is too, a slow, sweet almost whispered production until the final flourish you all know and love.

A performance that seemed to really savour the final bit of national pride, wishing it wasn’t all finished but safe in the knowledge of a job well done.And here are our Italian athletes entering the performance.All togged up in all white gear with medals proudly on display, what a moment for them it must be to stand after the powder has settled knowing you did yourself and your country proud.The Italian national anthem is on the way.Forza!Speaking of transitions we have moved into ballet called ‘faces of Italy’.

Our dancers prance across a giant video screen showing the faces of regular Italian folk like you or me … only Italian.Quite beautiful it is too.It is easy to forget how many non-athletes make an Olympic Games specifically the volunteers.People give up their time and presumably their leave at work to help produce all the action we get so excited about.So, thank you volunteers!How Diplo’s Major Lazer figure into all this operatic wonder is anyone’s guess but I am excited to see a transition into club bangers as smooth as Bruce Mouat’s match-winning stone for Team GB against Switzerland in the men’s curling semi-finals.

Ah our first sighting of Rigoletto in the rafters looking down on the action,I’m informed we have tunes (can you call them tunes?) from Madame Butterfly and (naturally) the Marriage of Figaro also,I’m not going to lie I could really do with a little bar that comes up on the bottom of the screen to say what the tune is, like on MTV,Anyway our first number draws to a close with a big blast of pyrotechnics and Rigoletto is thrilled so I am too,Encore!We start with a short film of our players getting ready for the closing ceremony in the bowels of the frankly epic Verona Arena.

The venue is the first world heritage sight hosting a closing ceremony which is about as arbitrary as you can get for a stat/nugget but it is still fantastic to use such a beautiful monument for the proceedings.Looks like we are in for a lot of opera tonight and I am HERE for it … as they say.Here we go, it is ‘beauty in action’ time.C’mon then Italy, blow our socks off!And a final plug for this breathtaking moment.Team GB creating Winter Olympics history with a first gold in mixed skeleton relay.

Could this Games be the beginning for a golden era in British sport on snow and ice? Let’s hope and while we are dreaming, how about we bring the mixed skeleton back in four years but let’s add a bobsleigh run from the pair too.Please!Before we start our long goodbye here is a roundup of a final, magical day at the Games.Three cheers to the USA for a first men’s hockey gold since the Miracle on Ice match in 1980.Wow.Eileen Gu defended her Olympic ski half-pipe title to make it six medals in six events over her Winter Games career.

The 22-year-old Gu is already the most decorated freeskier in the short history of the sport at the Olympics.She won the event on the strength of her second run, a clean, technically sound pass and got even better in her final run to finish with a score of 94.75.Her teammate, Li Fanghui, took silver and Zoe Atkin of Britain was third, upping GB’s medal tally to five.Sweden’s Ebba Andersson surged away from her rivals to secure a commanding win in the 50km classic cross-country ski race, winning the first gold medal in the event on its Olympic debut.

It was redemption for Andersson, who suffered a series of falls in the relay that likely cost her team a gold medal.She also has three second-place finishes at Milano Cortina, one earned after an impressive comeback in the relay and individual silvers in the skiathlon and 10km freestyle event.Germany’s Johannes Lochner collected his second bobsleigh gold of these Games in the four-man event, completing a hugely dominant week for the sliding superpower.Compatriot and double-defending champion Francesco Friedrich took silver but Germany’s hopes of a first-ever clean sweep in the event were spoiled when Michael Vogt snatched bronze for Switzerland on the final run.Sweden beat Switzerland for women’s curling gold to conclude the sport’s competition at Milano Cortina.

It was Sweden’s sixth curling Olympic gold and 13th medal overall the sport, trailing only Canada in both categories.After upsetting top-ranked Canada in the semi-finals Anna Hasselborg’s Sweden defeated Silvana Tirinzoni’s Switzerland 6-5.Canada beat the United States for bronze on Saturday.The United States claimed their third Olympic men’s hockey title – and first since the Miracle on Ice team of 1980 – with a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over Canada in Sunday’s gold medal game at the Milano Cortina Games.In the third Olympic final meeting between the border rivals and the first since Sidney Crosby’s epochal golden goal in 2010, the Americans seized their moment to end a 46-year wait and dethrone the sport’s most decorated nation on its grandest stage.

It can’t be long now … about 20 minutes to go.I’m not crying, you’re crying.Let’s keep it on the continent (and completely ignore Arsenal’s incredible 4-1 thrashing of Tottenham) with a quick roundup of the footballing action across Europe as we wait for the soiree in Verona.TNT have just broadcast a montage of Italian commentators their homegrown athletes winning gold at the Games.I expect it fully but it is nice to know for definite that other countries follow their own athletes the way the BBC do.

Steve Cram simply shouting “GET IN!” during yesterday’s men’s curling final after GB took a lead at one stage was a highlight for me,Definitely would be my approach to commentating, so cheers, Crammy!Right, I’m doing it,I was intrigued by the blurb for one of our performers … Achille Lauro (real name: Lauro De Marinis),So let’s go, whaddya got, Achille?Wikipedia informs me the real Achille Lauro (1887-1982) was an Italian businessman and politician,He is widely considered one of the main precursors of modern populism in Italian politics.

Cool inspo!And here is a look at the last day of action from Milano-Cortina,Beautiful,And speaking of my brother, Adam, none other than his best friend at school Radzi Chinyanganya (once of Blue Peter) is presenting the closing ceremony from the Verona Arena for TNT Sports … I promise I planned that … yep!We have gotten a little off piste so lets return to some moments of the Games,With all the success Team GB enjoyed there was disappointment too,Mia Brookes’s near miss in snowboarding big air was a incredibly emotional moment but hopefully she can be incredibly proud of giving it her absolute everything.

That is what it is all about even if there was no medal this time.Hopefully she is back for the French Alps in 2030.Can we all agree Montefiori Cocktail is one of the greatest band names ever? Good.Glad to have that settled.Just a quick word on how I came across the supreme elevator music easy listening champions.

My brother and I sat down to watch the Marco Pantani documentary ‘The Natural” and the entire soundtrack was by the group.We then spent the next day doing DIY only listening to them so as you might expect we had gone slightly mad by the end of the day.I can’t recommend the documentary highly enough though for a unvarnished glimpse into life of Pantani and his trials and tribulations.And to continue teasing the big send off, what or rather who do we have to look forward to entertaining us? Winter Games has laid on quite the spread …“The star Roberto Bolle was the first performer of the evening to be announced.​​A symbol of elegance, energy, and dedication, the international dance star will bring his extraordinary sensitivity and mastery to the stage.

​​The evening’s lineup will also feature Gabry Ponte, a global icon of dance and electronic music, who will transform the stage into an experience of shared energy; Achille Lauro, a Roman singer born in Verona and a contemporary pop icon, who transcends the boundaries of music to explore fashion, performance art, and symbolic imagery; actress ​​Benedetta Porcaroli, who will contribute to the event’s closing narrative; and Major Lazer, one of the most influential musical groups on the global scene,“With them, the Verona Olympic Arena will become a melting pot of cultures and sounds, where the solemnity of the moment will collide with an explosion of rhythm and colour,​​It will be a night of celebration to conclude the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, with thousands of hearts beating as one under the Verona sky,”My eye is drawn to Major Lazer and am feeling quite old as I remember hearing them a lot on the d-floor of my student union 15 years or so ago,There seems to be big party energy flowing through the program so why don’t we start with something a little more sedate but equally Italiano! Buon divertimento!Of course we also have the pomp and ceremony of the closing ceremony in a couple of hours to come from the OG pomp and ceremony production house … an ancient roman amphitheatre.

The Verona Arena to be exact which was completed in 30 AD.That is 1996 years ago.Still standing, still showing off the world’s greatest athletes.What a lovely touch from the organising committee and thankfully no one will get eaten by a tiger but maybe I have watched Gladiator too many times.The Milano-Cortina website has this to say:“For the first time in the history of the Games, an Olympic Ceremony will be held within a historic World Heritage monument, transforming it into a boundless stage.

“The title chosen for the Closing Ceremony is “Beauty in Action”.​​It will be a tribute to beauty in motion in all its forms: it lives in sport, is reflected in art, is nourished by human relationships, and manifests itself in the places that frame the Games, celebrating the strong connection between mountain and plain, between nature and city.Sunday evening will therefore see a story unfold, blending dream and reality, and weaving together tradition and innovation.​​A fusion of opera, music, dance, cinema, design, and technology, the show will draw inspiration from Italy’s rich cultural and artistic heritage.It will showcase the country’s powerful balance between classicism and modernity, and the creative ability of Italians to transform aesthetics into emotion.

”Good evening, winter sport warriors! I can’t quite believe it is all coming to an end, it feels like we have only just started learning the intricacies of a blanked end in curling or a whole new sport in ski mountaineering and then POOF it is all gone again and we have to wait another four years for the ultimate thrill seeker Games.Until we wave goodbye though I’d love to hear about your favourite moments of the Olympics and share them back with everyone … so please send them over! And yes it can be penisgate … obviously!And with that, my stint on the blog for this Olympics is over.Here to see you the closing ceremony is Graham Searles.The Great Olympic lie: untold story of Winter Games’ huge environmental impactOn the foothills of the mountains, by the banks of the river in Cortina, there was a forest.It was full of tall larch trees.

Arborists said the oldest of them had been there for 150 years and dendrologists that it was unique because it was unusual to find a monocultural forest growing at such a low altitude in the southern Alps.The locals knew mostly it was the place where the old wooden bobsleigh run was, where you went on your walks in summer or autumn, or when you wanted to play tennis on the small courts built near the bottom.They called it the Bosco di Ronco and it isn’t there any more.Sustainability is the great lie of these Games.It was written all through the bid document and the International Olympic Committee has slapped it across all manner of promotional literature.

Cheating, Penisgate and boos for Vance: the 10 wildest stories of the Winter OlympicsAmid the triumphs, failures and broken medals in Milano Cortina, here’s our countdown of the outstanding moments that will live long in the memory:USA stun Canada in overtime to win first Olympic men’s ice hockey gold since 1980The United States claimed their third Olympic men’s hockey title – and first since the Miracle on Ice team of 1980 – with a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over Canada in Sunday’s gold medal game at the Milano Cortina Games.In the third Olympic final meeting between the border rivals and the first since Sidney Crosby’s epochal golden goal in 2010, the Americans seized their moment to end a 46-year wait and dethrone the sport’s most decorated nation on its grandest stage.Canada had been chasing a record-extending 10th gold medal in men’s ice hockey, but it was the United States who delivered when it mattered most through Jack Hughes’ winner less than two minutes into the extra period and a superhuman effort from goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, capping an unbeaten run through the first Olympic tournament to feature National Hockey League players in 12 years.And that brings up to this morning when Zoe Atkin won women’s freestyle skiing halfpipe bronze to claim Great Britain’s fifth medal of their record-breaking Winter Olympics as China’s Eileen Gu soared to win her first gold of the Games.Atkin qualified for the final in first place and led after the first run, in which the single best score from three runs counts in the standings:On the penultimate day of the Games Johannes Høsflot Klæbo completed his golden set and Andy Bull was at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium to see it:At the end of one of the great races in the history of the Winter Olympics, there was the greatest athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics.

After a little over two hours of racing Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won his sixth gold medal of these Games when he beat his Norwegian teammate Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget by 17.4 seconds to win the men’s 50km classic.The triumph meant the 29-year-old set the record for the most gold medals in a single Winter Games, set by the US speed skater Eric Heiden when he won five at Lake Placid in 1980.In an age of exaggeration and in an industry that loves overstatement, it is entirely true to say that there has never been anything quite like it.Klæbo now has 11 Olympic gold medals, which puts him one ahead of the entire country of India on the all-time table.

Were he a nation, he would be ninth in the 2026 medal standings,In this past fortnight he has competed in 10 races across 115km, in six different events, in the space of just 14 days, and won every single one of them,Nobody has ever swept all the cross-country events in a single Olympics before; truth is nobody has ever imagined it was possible in such a gruelling sport,After watching the Norwegian great, Andy then got on the road to Cortina to see if Team GB could go one better than four years ago in the men’s curling,They couldn’t:double quotation markThe cruel truth is that sometimes the silvers you win are more like golds you lost.

After four years of thinking about this Olympics, and 11 days of competing in this Olympics, there is no doubt about how Bruce Mouat and his three teammates will weigh their achievement here after they were beaten by Canada 9-6 in the final,It was an excruciatingly tense game, which twisted and turned on its way to the very final stone of the 10th end,And when it was over, two of the British players were left in tears,Great Britain’s fourth medal of these Olympics was more bitter than sweet,For the Americans, Milano Cortina 2026 was a battle for the soul of representing Team USA