2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony

A joke was made about the hydraulic system failure with the indoor cauldron in the opening ceremony. Electrical sparks, a fake chicken and feathers shot out of the hole where the fourth arm would have risen. After this, Québécois clown and mime Yves Dagenais, dressed in workmen's clothing, climbed out of the hole, plugged two long cords together, and pretended to pull the fourth pillar out as it emerged. Dagenais then "summoned" Catriona Le May Doan (who appeared from underneath the stage via an elevated trap door), holding a lit torch in her hand. She looked around, acting bewildered, and then saw Dagenais, and he happily presented to her the emerging fourth pillar. He then wiped his brow with a red handkerchief to signify a job well done and walked off the stage. After the pillar was in place, Le May Doan, who had been left out of the lighting of the cauldron in the opening ceremony because of the failure, saluted the audience by holding her torch in the air, walked over toward the pillar and was finally able to light the cauldron, to great fanfare from the audience. With the entire cauldron lit, Le May Doan saluted the audience again and then descended back underneath the stage.[3][4][5]

A mass of white-clad high school students with snowboards flocked out and surrounded the cauldron while the band Inward Eye gave a performance, with the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra behind them. This took place during the countdown, which was followed by the release of fireworks in BC Place. After the countdown and fireworks, the anthem cast created the words Strong and Free followed by a maple leaf and then a circle (called the Death Star by the Anthem Cast) surrounding the cauldron to welcome the official party. After O Canada was sung, the cast did a droplet formation before creating a snowflake, a heart, and a peace sign before exploding up the voms.

Chief Leonard Andrew of the Lil'wat, Chief Ernie Campbell of the Musqueam, Chief Bill Williams of the Squamish, and Chief Justin George of the Tsleil-Waututh were welcomed. Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada and IOC president Jacques Rogge were then introduced.

A bilingual rendition of the Canadian national anthem O Canada was sung by the Anthem Cast, The Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra, & Inward Eye.

The flag bearers for the participating nations then entered the stadium at the same time, making a ring around the Olympic Cauldron. Following tradition, the athletes entered the stadium in no particular order to parade around the Olympic Cauldron at the centre of the stadium, before filing out to take their reserved front row seats.

Three musicians, Eva Avila, Nikki Yanofsky, and Derek Miller, each on an elevated, lighted column that rose out of the stadium floor, sang the song "Let's Have a Party" in French and English.

As with tradition, the medals to one of the marquee events of the Winter Games – men's 50 km classical cross-country – were presented during the closing ceremony. The race was held earlier that day in Whistler Olympic Park. The medals were given by Gerhard Heiberg, IOC member for Norway and member of the Executive Commission of the IOC. The flowers were given by the Ski Federation.

Two new members of the IOC, Angela Ruggiero (USA) and Adam Pengilly (UK), were announced.[6] The volunteers who made the games possible were also recognized.

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police honour guard raised the Greek national flag while the Greek national anthem was then sung by Greek-Canadian opera singer Ariana Chris.

Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, born in British Columbia and singer of O Canada at the 2006 closing ceremony in Torino, then sang the Olympic Hymn, mixing English and French, while an RCMP honour guard lowered the Olympic flag. This flag was raised again in London on July 27, 2012 during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The Olympic flag was handed off by Gregor Robertson, the mayor of Vancouver, to Jacques Rogge, the President of the IOC. It was then handed off to the mayor of Sochi, Anatoly Pakhomov, whose city will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The flag arrived in Sochi at the end of March and was raised at that city's municipal building until the 2014 games.[7] During that time, the orchestra played an excerpt from the Olympic Fanfare and Theme by John Williams. Russian Armed Forces honor guards then entered the stadium, carrying the Russian flag. They passed the flag to the honor guards of the RCMP. The flag was then raised and the Russian national anthem was sung by the Moscow State Chamber Choir, conducted by Vladimir Minin.

A demonstration was then staged by the Russians to showcase the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The segment featured Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova in a video. Maria Guleghina[8] performed while riding on a special troika containing white neon horses,[9] the principal dancers of the Kirov, Bolshoi and Mariinsky ballets, 2006 Olympic champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov ice dancing by the Black Sea,[10] giant zorbs rolling around the stage, the appearance of figure skaters Evgeni Plushenko and Irina Rodnina with ice hockey players Alexander Ovechkin and Vladislav Tretiak (four years later, Rodnina and Tretiak began to light the cauldron in Sochi), and a live orchestra performance playing in Red Square while being conducted, via satellite, by Valery Gergiev at BC Place.[11]

The games were formally closed by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge calling them "excellent and very friendly" in his tradition of assigning each games their own identity in closing comments. Rogge also addressed the tragic loss of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died in an accident at the Whistler Sliding Centre on February 12, in his comments, stating his condolences for the country of Georgia, and that his memory "will always be with us."[12] John Furlong, chair of VANOC, also spoke.[4]

Neil Young sang "Long May You Run" while the Olympic flame was extinguished in both the indoor[3] and outdoor cauldrons. After both flames were extinguished, all four legs of the indoor cauldron descended to the ground.