(Transcript from World News Radio)
And the audience has celebrated the success of the Games for Russia in more than one way.
Ron Sutton has the story.
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The new president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, at the Closing Ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Games ...
"Our Russian hosts had promised excellent sports venues, outstanding Olympic Villages and impeccable organisation. Tonight, we can say Russia delivered all that it had promised."
Russia failed to reach the final, pinnacle event of the Sochi Winter Olympics, but the Closing Ceremony has wrapped up a Games that proved a Russian triumph in every sense.
Despite an ice-hockey gold-medal game played without the Russian team that disappointed the host fans where their passions lay thickest, Russia has walked out the winner.
Not only has the curtain closed on a Games that many doubted Russia could pull off securely amid heavy security threats, but the Russians have dominated the medal count.
They dominated either way it is counted -- winning the most gold medals, 13, or winning the most medals overall, 33.
Still, it was Canada, third behind Norway with ten gold medals, who ended the Games with the one the Russians perhaps wanted most.
Here's Channel Ten's comentary as the final seconds expired:
"And Canada, once again, for the ninth time in Winter and Summer Olympic history, has won the gold medal in men's ice hockey. It is a double. The women won against the USA. That was nowhere near as convincing as this has been by Canada against Sweden. A goal in each period, and, ultimately, they were so much better than the Swedes when it came down to it. It has finished Sweden nil, Canada 3."
Russia finished strongly on the last day of competition, though, assuring itself of the top spot when it made a clean sweep of the medals in the men's 50-kilometre cross-country ski race.
When Alexander Zubkov grabbed his second gold medal of the Games as Russia won the four-man bobsleigh, Russia had its 13th gold.
Behind Russia, Norway and Canada, the United States and The Netherlands completed the top five, although Germany matched The Netherlands with eight golds.
Norway remains the all-time leading medal winner in the Winter Olympics.
Australia was a distant 24th at Sochi with two silver medals and a bronze.
David Morris had the honour of carrying the Australian flag in the Closing Ceremony after pulling off a big surprise with his silver in the men's aerials.
It was his remarks after his medal performance that made him the common man's champion.
"I felt like crying. I felt like throwing up. And it's just ... you know, when I started the sport, I was told I wasn't going to be good. Like, 'I don't think you'll be good at this sport.' And now I've got a silver medal at the Olympics, so it's like, 'There is it, everyone.' I knew I was going to be good from the start, and there's the proof, so no-one can take that away from me, ever. It's in the history books."
Lydia Lassila took bronze in the women's aerials.
And Torah Bright won the other silver for Australia in the snowboard halfpipe.
Both Lassila and Bright were defending champions, leaving the Australians a step down from their performance at Vancouver four years ago.
But if Bright was disheartened, she did not show it.
"I feel great. I feel like I won. Tonight was really difficult -- perhaps one of the hardest contests I've done in a while -- so I'm so happy it's over and I'm so happy I put a (good) run down. And, I don't know, I'm just really grateful to be here."
Australia missed its goal of finishing among the top 15 teams, but team officials insist it was a successful Olympics, citing a number of high-level finishes by young athletes.
Overall, it was an Olympics that produced the biggest career gold medallist ever in the Winter Games and husband-and-wife gold medallists just minutes apart.
It was an Olympics that produced a photo finish in a men's ski-cross semi-final when one of three skiers who crashed stretched his arm across the line as the others lay on their backs.
And it was an Olympics that marked the return of the fabled Jamaican bobsleigh team -- although, this time, the team finished 29th with a 46 year-old driver.
Now, the pressure and focus of the Winter Olympics will move on to South Korea.
Pyeongchang, in the mountains east of Seoul, is set to host the next Winter Games in 2018.
The International Olympic Committee's Thomas Bach extended the official invitation as he wrapped up the Sochi Games.
"In accordance with tradition, I call upon the youths of the world to assemble four years from now in Pyeongchang to celebrate with us the 23rd Olympic Winter Games."
