Updated Feb. 23, 2014 7:44 p.m. ET
Fireworks explode over Olympic Park at the end of Sunday's closing ceremony. Associated Press
Sochi, Russia
The 2014 Winter Olympics ended Sunday with a sparkling closing ceremony infused with Russian pride.
It came against a backdrop that reflected the complex legacy and timing of these Games: tumult in Ukraine, the apparent detention of environmental activists in Sochi and Russia's dramatic win in the medal count. Conductor Valery Gergiev led 1,000 choir children singing the Russian national anthem as the athletes who won the host country's 13 gold medals stood in front of them.
An upside-down village reminiscent of Marc Chagall paintings floated over the arena while Schnittke's "Polka" played. Pianist Denis Matsuev performed Rachmaninoff surrounded by 248 performers dancing around 62 other pianos. Performers unicycled, bounced and juggled in front of a red-and-white circus tent. One of the biggest cheers came when pictures of Russian writers—including Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, Chekhov and Akhmatova—appeared out from under the stage.
But perhaps the most dramatic image of the ceremony was one the organizers couldn't plan on: the fact that Russian cross-country skiers swept the top three spots in the 50-kilometer race earlier in the day.
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The medals for that race were awarded during the closing ceremony, as is custom at the Winter Games. That meant that three Russian flags rose while the national anthem played. The crowd roared for Alexander Legkov, the gold medalist who led Russia's surprise sweep, as he pumped his fists in the air in celebration. Legkov's win, followed by a gold medal in the men's four-man bobsled event, cemented Russia's largest Winter Olympics medal count in history and its lead in the medal standings.
Russian President Vladimir Putin watched from the VIP box and appeared on-screen with IOC president Thomas Bach. He was appearing while in the midst of dealing with one of the biggest foreign-policy crises of his tenure, the fall of closely allied President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine. Putin didn't speak, but Bach thanked him for his personal support in putting on the Games and lavished praise on the organizers of the most expensive Olympics in history.
"What took decades in other parts of the world was achieved here in Sochi in just seven years," Bach said.
But even hours before the start of the ceremony, another reminder came of the controversy over environmental damage and human rights that have accompanied this Olympics. Two environmental activists were detained in Sochi, according to their lawyer, Alexander Popkov.
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Popkov said activists Olga Noskovets and David Hakim were stopped by police on Sunday and faced up to 15 days in detention. He said they had been taken into custody separately, apparently for disobeying police orders. He said Hakim wasn't planning a protest that day and that he didn't know whether Noskovets was.
The Sochi press office of the interior ministry didn't respond to a request for comment.
The closing ceremony featured less bombast than the Feb. 7 opening ceremony and a few more intimate performances. In a news conference earlier in the day, the creative director of the ceremony, Konstantin Ernst, described the emotion to be expressed in the event as "optimistic wistfulness."
There was a ballet sequence featuring a giant chandelier and proscenium arches representing Russia's most famous ballet theaters, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky. The Games' bear mascot blew out the Olympic flame. In a nod to Misha, the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Games, a lone tear emerged from the bear's cheek.
Daniele Finzi Pasca, an Italian who was artistic director of the ceremony, said before the event that "not everything went well" in the final rehearsal on Saturday. But things appeared to run smoothly during the performance. In fact, the most obvious "mistake" was intentional: In the first scene, hundreds of dancers in sparkling costumes formed the Olympic rings but didn't shape the fifth one immediately—a nod to a ring that failed during the opening ceremony.
"We wanted something that was a mistake to become unforgettable," Pasca said.
Write to Anton Troianovski at anton.troianovski@wsj.com
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