Great Britain can return from the Winter Olympics with a golden glow surrounding its sporting reputation. Team GB won three golds at a Games for the first time in history.

Take a bow, Matt Weston, the male flag bearer, who won two of them in the men’s skeleton and team competition alongside Tabby Stoeker. Charlotte Banks won gold in the team snowboard cross with Huw Nightingale, becoming the first British athletes to win the ultimate medal in an event on snow. The glass ceiling has been smashed in Cortina, leaving a legacy for future Team GB athletes to build on in the coming years.

But if Team GB’s standing in winter sports has been elevated to a whole new level, the Games itself cannot boast of a similar achievement.

In her speech to close the Games in the Verona Olympic Arena, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry spoke of “respect” and “friendship”.

“This is the true Olympic spirit,” she said. “Competing, embracing, lifting each other up, whatever the result.

“You showed us what excellence, respect, and friendship look like in a world that sometimes forgets these values. You showed us that the Olympic Games are a place for everyone. A place where sport brings us together.”

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Russian Nikita Filippov was allowed to win a silver medal in the men’s ski mountaineering as an Individual Neutral Athlete.

Despite Russia being banned from the Games as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, Filippov was also allowed to attend the closing ceremony, having been banned from the opening one.

The Games have had some wonderful moments, and Coventry is bound to speak of her pride at what has taken place.

But there have also been contradictions, controversies and chaotic episodes, which remind us all that, despite what she claims, sport is still capable of dividing as well as uniting.