Pyeongchang Winter Olympics closing ceremony begins

Fireworks light up the night sky behind the Olympic cauldron during the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Pyeongchang Stadium on February 25, 2018. PHOTO | FLORIAN CHOBLET |

What you need to know:

  • The closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics Games got underway Sunday, bringing to an end more than a fortnight of competition in 15 sports.
  • South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump were in the stadium, as was General Kim Yong Chol, head of the North Korean delegation.

PYEONGCHANG

The closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics Games got underway Sunday, bringing to an end more than a fortnight of competition in 15 sports.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump were in the stadium, as was General Kim Yong Chol, head of the North Korean delegation.

The Games opened on February 9 and were the biggest Winter Olympics of all time, with 2,920 athletes competing for a record 102 gold medals.

Norway topped the final medal tally with 14 golds ahead of Germany, which also had 14 gold but fewer medals in all. Canada was third with 11 golds. Hosts South Korea were seventh.

The run-up to the Games sparked an abrupt thaw in relations between North and South Korea, with the North sending a delegation of more than 500 to Pyeongchang including 22 athletes.

The two Koreas marched together in the opening ceremony behind the Korean unification flag.

But they were seen entering separately into the closing event.

The North Koreans marched in waving small North Korean flags and unification flags.

The South Koreans followed right afterwards but most of them carried South Korean flags in both hands.

At the start of the ceremony the South's President Moon shook hands with Kim, a controversial visitor to the South.

Kim, the vice chairman of North Korea's ruling Workers Party central committee, is accused of masterminding past attacks on the South and his visit has triggered protests.

Russian athletes were to march into the closing ceremony under a neutral flag after a ban on Russia's Olympic Committee was upheld on Sunday following a mass doping scandal.