Fireworks explode over BC Place Stadium at the end of the closing ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Fireworks explode over BC Place Stadium at the end of the closing ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. (Todd Korol/Reuters)

As the 2010 Olympics closed, the world's commentators were giving Vancouver mixed reviews and looking ahead to the next Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Here is a sampling of some of their comments.

There were two closing ceremonies to the Vancouver Winter Olympics — the formal pageant of farewell, and Canada's melodramatic victory in the ice hockey final. The former was a rite, but the latter was much more momentous; it was a right.

All fortnight long, a team had dwelled on a medal, and a nation had dwelled on a team. So it was that from yesterday's rainy dawn, queues began to form outside bars showing the match, though they would not open for hours. So it was that scalpers did a roaring trade (the International Olympic Committee's attitude was typical: it affected to disdain scalping, then institutionalized it by promoting an official facility that limited prices to 10-times face value).

— Greg Baum, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald

With a gold medal in men's hockey sending all of Canada into a delirium of national pride, the 21st Winter Olympics came to a rousing conclusion Sunday to stand in happy contrast to how these Games began two weeks ago.

Poking fun at their own expense, Vancouver organizers began the show with a mock electrician plugging in the hydraulics that finally raised the fourth column of the cauldron, giving flame-bearer Catriona Le May Doan the opportunity to do what she was unable to 16 days ago.

Spectators roared when the column began ascending from the floor of the stadium and cheered again when flames shot up its length to the top. Native son and Bay Area resident Neil Young rose from the floor to stand at the base of the cauldron where he sang one of his hits, Long May You Run.

The Olympic flame was then extinguished amid a fluttering of confetti simulating snowflakes.

— John Crumpacker, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle

If Canadians seemed understandably subdued at the start of these Games, there was no stopping the show of national joy after Sidney Crosby secured gold for Canada.

An Olympics that had been prematurely written off earlier this month has more than redeemed itself. The last 17 days have been a showcase of national pride, perseverance and triumph over tragedy — a watershed Games for a long-suffering country.

— Paul Choi, writing for Fanhouse

After Beijing's orderly and creepy celebration of itself and the Chinese talent for mass organization, Vancouver's approach was a bit more haphazard and a lot more likeable. So what if parts of the opening ceremony did not quite go as planned — it was the spirit that counted.

The choice of Cypress Mountain to host the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events was the great gamble that did not pay off. No snow and lots of rain left the venue looking more like a Glastonbury mud bath than a winter wonderland. Still, there was enough snow for the boarders to strut their stuff, most memorably Shaun White, whose gold-medal performance in the men's halfpipe proved that, sometimes, you really do need to believe the hype. It was just a shame the 28,000 people who had their tickets cancelled because of safety concerns were not able to witness such highlights.

— Lawrence Donegan, writing for the Guardian

The Canadians spent $117 million — $66 million of it taxpayer money — to win the medals race here, but waved the white flag on that lofty goal midway through the Games. Turns out they surrendered too soon. Canada did "Own the Podium," but only the top step, setting an all-time Winter Olympic gold standard with 14. (Germany had 10, the United States nine.) And once it became obvious they weren't going to own the medal table, the Canadians began touting their gold count, much as the Chinese did in Beijing.

— Tracee Hamilton, writing for the Washington Post

I happen to know this town of old, and while Vancouver is rightly lauded for its beautiful natural surroundings and mini-New York skyline, the nightlife is usually more Macclesfield than Manhattan. It has therefore been a revelation for the locals to see the city's main streets teeming with punters partying until the early hours.

Many locals have found fun and fellowship in public that you feel they may not have experienced here before. If nothing else, it is always so damn refreshing in any Olympic city to be able to converse with strangers in streets and bars.

Nick Metcalfe, writing for theDaily Mail

Believe me, I'm no prude. But all the yelling and screaming and woo-wooing becomes grating. These are the fourth Olympics I've covered, and Vancouver drinks Athens, Torino and Beijing under the table.

Sean Gregory, writing for Time.com

Four years from now, the Winter Olympic Games will be held in Sochi, Russia. Unlike Vancouver, Sochi, and the eastern Black Sea region where it sits, is synonymous with poverty, corruption and violence. The question to ask between now and the closing ceremony of the Sochi Games is: Will the bright glow of the Olympics influence Sochi and its neighbourhood positively, or will the unstable character of the region tarnish the Olympic spirit?

Alina Inayeh, writing for Der Spiegel

The Winter Olympics are over, and while the Vancouver Games had moments of glory, I couldn't help but conclude — as the snow refused to fall on the gleaming new walkways of the Olympic Village — that rotating Olympic sites does more harm than good. The tradition ought to be replaced by the creation of a permanent site for both the Summer and Winter Games.

Charles Banks-Altekruse, former Olympic rower and consultant, writing for the New York Times