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2002 Winter Olympics send out final flame

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The Salt Lake City Winter Olympics officially drew to a close last night with the closing ceremonies and the extinguishing of the flame.

While the athletes marched into the stadium to celebrate, the conclusion of the 17-day event memories of recent victories and defeats were still fresh in their minds.

The last event of the 2002 Olympic Games directly affected the American contingent, as the U.S. hockey team lost to its North American neighbor, Canada, in the gold-medal game 5-2. After defeating Russia in the semifinals Friday 3-2, it appeared as though a remake of 1980’s “Miracle on Ice” was going to occur in Salt Lake City. However, the Canadians rebounded from early round criticism and beat the Americans.

While the hockey team was disappointed with its second-place finish, the American bobsleigh team was thrilled with its silver medal. For the first time in over 40 years, a U.S. team earned a medal in the event, as the two four-man bobsleigh teams finished in second and third place, respectively, with Germany claiming the gold medal.

The medals earned by the United States in the final days of competition brought its total to 34 medals, which is a record number for the Americans in the Winter Games. The previous high was set in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano with 13 medals. Germany led all countries with 35 medals, and with Norway (23), Canada (17) and Austria (16) rounding out the top five nations. After all the athletes were present in the stadium during last night’s closing ceremonies, the celebration of the two-week event began. Musical group *NSync performed the host nation’s national anthem, with other entertainment coming from performers including Kiss, Earth, Wind and Fire and Gloria Estefan.