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Games Go Out with a Bang at the Closing Ceremony (February 23)
On February 22, the main stage in Minami Nagano Sports Park was a vision of colorful motion as the Olympic athletes from around the world danced the 1998 Nagano Games to an end. The Closing Ceremony was attended by the Emperor and Empress of Japan, who waved back at the smiling Olympians gathered in the center of the arena.Kenji Ogiwara, the Nordic skier who served as captain of the Japanese team, and Hiroyasu Shimizu, the gold-medalist speed skater, sang together with their arms around each other's shoulders. They had come through the stress and the pressure of the Games and done their best; their happy faces were wonderful to see.
The competitors were all together in the end. Some were jumping for joy. Big athletes lifted little children onto their shoulders, where the kids grinned happily. The whole stage shook with their movement.In the front row of the stands, a middle schooler from Nagano City shouted out: "We are all brothers and sisters!"
Up on the stage, Polish short-track speed skater Maciej Pryczek was dancing, his eyes filling with tears. "To be here dancing all together . . . this is what the Olympics are all about. Thank you!" The song played on, and the Olympic competitors danced together; the world was one. (Shinano Mainichi Shimbun)
