Ten highs and lows from the Winter Olympic Games at Sochi

DAVID Morris soared and Alex “Chumpy” Pullin hit the floor. Ten highs and ten lows from a riveting two weeks in Sochi:

The opening ceremony at Sochi was a winner. Picture: AFP

Highlights

1)Sochi Spectacular

The Opening Ceremony remains the moment of the XXII Olympic Winter Games – the night Russia shed its old Soviet skin for a pair of hipster jeans.

From the balletic portrayal of Tolstoy’s War and Peace to stories of Peter the Great and the inflatable jigsaw puzzle that made St Basil’s Cathedral, Russia revisited its history in spectacular fashion, while showing off its 21st century razzamatazz. Not even a mis-behaving snowflake could steal the magic of Russia’s symbolic re-emergence.

2) Jumpin’ Dave Flash is a gas

David Morris’ family wore Aussie flag capes and carried a giant blow-up kangaroo, and the 29-year-old aerial skier justified the hype. His jumps weren’t as difficult as those of his opponents, but he landed jump after jump, piling on the pressure as all but one of his rivals crumbled. A fitting silver medal for our most exuberant, likeable athlete in Sochi.

3) Cold War on ice

It was the grudge match of the Olympics, and it didn’t disappoint. It took three brutal 20-minute periods, five nerve-jangling minutes of extra time and an eight-round goal shoot-out to finally separate Team USA from the Russians. The Americans said it was the best game of Olympic ice hockey since their “Miracle on Ice” victory over the mighty Soviet Union 34 years ago. The 12,000 Russian fans on hand, including Putin, may not have agreed. The drama played out in Sochi’s space-age Bolshoy Ice Dome.

4) Lydia’s legendary leap, almost

Australia's Lydia Lassila crashes on her final jump in the women's freestyle skiing aerials final. Picture: AP

Coming to the final, the defending gold medallist could have played it safe. But our aerials queen wanted history as much as she wanted a medal, and proceeded to lay down the first ever quad twisting triple somersault by any women in any competition, anywhere. Unfortunately, the landing wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough for bronze.

5) Putin is a doll

It was the must-have souvenir of Sochi – a Russian doll featuring a serious-looking painting of the Russian president peering out from under the lacquer finish. Tucked inside Vladimir Putin were past Russian leaders Joseph Stalin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Dmitry Medvedev. Too hard to resist at 1200 roubles ($37).

6) Silver shines Bright

After days of raising complaints about Sochi’s snowboarding courses, it was time to deliver in the halfpipe for Vancouver golden girl Torah Bright. She left it to the last possible moment, pulling out a silver-medal winning performance in her final run. Our highest-profile winter athlete made history competing in three events in Sochi, but the eternal question remained: could she have won back-to-back gold if she had restricted her focus to halfpipe?

7) Best Marketing Award

For a club that never “existed”, Sochi’s taboo nightspot, the Mayak, is now the most famous gay club in the world. Journalist after journalist beat a path to its plain brown door in a backlane after Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov delivered a marketing coup by claiming the city had no gay citizens. “Everyone here just laughs when we hear that – this is very funny,’’ bartender Nikita Berezutoky said, while offering bottles of Dom Perignon 2000 for 18,000 roubles ($600) to the crowds of partygoers.

8) Dutch demon

The Dutch have completely owned the traditional form of speed skating at these Games, led by Ireen Wust, who will go home with at least four medals. The bisexual athlete scored a hug from Putin after her gold medal in the 3,000 metres. Surely a symbolic win for those calling for equal treatment of gay athletes under the Olympic Charter’s Principle Six.

9) Sublime spooks

Russia’s 70,000 strong security force looks on track to record mission success. Not only do they appear to have shut out the Islamic terrorists who threatened the Games, but they kept Sochi safe in a low-key, friendly manner. Our airport security teams should line up for lessons.

10) Liquid liaisons

Russian food is hardly one of the world culinary delights, but borscht hit the spot every time. The classic Russian beetroot soup was the ideal way for Olympic party goers to recharge the body after a night on the vodka. Extensive taste tests confirmed the best brand was super smooth “Husky”, made from Siberian springwater.

Lowlights

1) Chumpy got carved

What was supposed to be Australia’s sporting highlight became a train wreck when the worst weather of the Olympics reduced the snowboard cross race to a lottery. Our world champ, Alex “Chumpy” Pullin, hit a snowbank, while Jarryd Hughes and Cam Bolton, were left battered, bruised and broken after being taken out. “I’m so sore I just want to go to the hotel and cry,’’ Hughes said.

2) “Tennis dad” goes bonkers

Bruce Brockhoff announced himself as the Damir Dokic of the Olympics with his poorly timed attack on Pullin only hours before the big race. He embarrassed his snowboarding daugher Belle Brockhoff, angered the entire Olympic team and left Torah Bright admitting her #teamoutcast campaign to raise awareness about funding had been “silly”.

3) Russian blues

The 19th of February will go down in Putin’s diary as Russia’s Olympic day from hell. First, members of the band Pussy Riot were whipped by Cossack militia, in an embarrassing incident broadcast around the world. The nation mourned as Finland eliminated Russia from the ice hockey, then cried as its 15-year-old figure skating darling Yulia Lipnitskaya bit the ice in the ladies’ short program. Russia’s under-rated Adelina Sotnikova restored pride with an unexpected figure skating gold 24 hours later.

4) Ten steps to disaster

Poor Daniel Greig just wanted the Sochi speedskating track to open up and swallow him after he crashed to the ice only tens steps into his pet 500m event. The 22-year-old was a genuine medal chance and had left home to train with the world’s best in The Netherlands. “It’s the worst thing that you can possibly imagining happening after four years of training,’’ he said. He will be back, battle-hardened and better, in 2018.

5) Gold medal for whinging

Torah Bright’s snowboarding coach Ben Bright forgot his manners with a heated attack on the “f***ing retarded” condition of the Olympic halfpipe. Snowboarder Scotty James, one of the young guns of the team, was little better, taking a shot at the judges after failing to get past qualifying in slopestyle and halfpipe.

6) Where’s Old Man Winter?

Cossacks and athletes but no snow in the streets of Sochi.

First Vancouver, now Sochi. Would it hurt to hold the Winter Olympics in a city that actually has snow? To be fair, the mountain events took place in a beautiful setting on a decent snow cover from falls earlier in the season, but it was T-shirt weather in the streets of Sochi in the second week. We’re still waiting for it to snow.

7) Tinder tie-ups

Sex is hardly a new happening within an Olympic village. But Sochi’s athletes were the first to take the chat out of “chatting up”. Olympians in droves jumped onto the new Tinder dating application on their smart phones to find out which other users were nearby. If two users selected “like” for each other, they were then able to hook up. So much for a little bit of romance – or maybe we’re just getting old.

8) Champion nuisance

Barcelona gold-medallist Kathy Watt was a speed bump for the Australian Olympic Committee. Before arriving in Sochi, the champion cyclist pestered the AOC for months for a free ticket to the Opening Ceremony. Media director Mike Tancred finally found an unallocated media pass for Watt at the last moment. Days later, officials were shocked to discover Watt had managed to get inside the high-security area of the Olympic Village, calling out for bobsledder Jana Pittman.

9) Taking a bite

Russia may have spent $50 billion getting Sochi ready, but someone had a fair go at recouping a healthy chunk of it through food sales. A bowl of soup and three pieces of chicken was an extravagant $22 in Rosa Khutor, while two sausages, a bottle of Coke and chocolate bar lightened the wallet by $18. The hot dogs were of New York-class - at $7 a pop.

10) Angry Uncle Sam

The Americans came to Russia ready to pick a fight. The U.S. media criticised the hotels, the water, the weather, the food, the political system and the cost of staging the Games. Barack Obama stayed at home, sent a decidedly low-level delegation and took a shot at Putin’s gay propaganda laws. Maybe the Cold War isn’t really over after all.