Sochi Winter Paralympic Games comes to an end with dazzling show featuring wheelchair dancers, Tetris-themed sign and a huge firework display as Putin looks on

  • Winter Paralympic Games have come to an end in the Black Sea city of Sochi this evening with a huge firework display
  • Closing ceremony featured trapeze artists, wheelchair dancers, a children's choir and Tetris-themed display
  • Blocks inspired by video game spelled word Impossible before athlete dropped in comma to make it read I'm Possible
  • Watched by President Putin 460 performers took part in the show to mark the end of the Games

By Chris Pleasance

PUBLISHED: 15:35 EST, 16 March 2014 | UPDATED: 10:59 EST, 17 March 2014

The 2014 Winter Paralympic Games have closed in Sochi with a ceremony every bit as grand and gaudy as the Winter Olympics themselves.

Watched over by President Putin, nearly 460 artists danced, swung and sang their way through a display based around the slogan 'reaching the impossible'.

The Fhist stadium was lit up with the word Impossible, before Alexey Chuvashev, wheelchair athlete and medal winner of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, climbed a 15-metre rope to place an apostrophe which changed the word into 'I'm Possible'.

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Inspired: The Sochi Winter Paralympic closing ceremony with disabled athlete Aleksey Chuvashev scaling a 15-metre rope to drop a comma into the word Impossible to make it read I'm Possible

Inspired: The Sochi Winter Paralympic closing ceremony with disabled athlete Aleksey Chuvashev scaling a 15-metre rope to drop a comma into the word Impossible to make it read I'm Possible

Stunning: The word was spelled out using tiles shaped like pieces from the classic computer game Tetris

Stunning: The word was spelled out using tiles shaped like pieces from the classic computer game Tetris

All action: The show also featured wheelchair dancers, trapeze artists, skateboarders and parkour runners

All action: The show also featured wheelchair dancers, trapeze artists, skateboarders and parkour runners

Watching over: President Putin watches 460 performers, who rehearsed for months to ensure the show ran smoothly, sung, swung and danced through the ceremony in the Fisht stadium

Watching over: President Putin watches 460 performers, who rehearsed for months to ensure the show ran smoothly, sung, swung and danced through the ceremony in the Fisht stadium

Talent: The show also featured an a cappella performance of the Russian Federation anthem by a children's choir, some of whom had disabilities

Talent: The show also featured an a cappella performance of the Russian Federation anthem by a children's choir, some of whom had disabilities

The event also featured stunning parkour performers who ran and jumped their way across the stadium floor, as well as bicyclists, skateboarders, and trapeze artists.

The aerial acrobats featured alongside a group of performers the Russian Federation of Wheelchair Sport Dancing in the opening section of the show which was directed by the creative duet of Konstantin Vasilyev, coach of world and European champions in wheelchair sport dance, and Phil Hayes, world-renowned aerial choreographer.

After the Russian flag was raised, the Russian Federation anthem was performed by the Children's Choir of the All-Russian Choral Society. The choir united 100 gifted children from choral and musical schools from various corners of Russia, including 35 young singers with an impairment, who performed the anthem a cappella.

Great Britons: British Paralympic skier Jade Etherington, who is visually impared and won silver on the first day of the games in the downhill event, carried the Union Flag into the stadium

Great Britons: British Paralympic skier Jade Etherington, who is visually impared and won silver on the first day of the games in the downhill event, carried the Union Flag into the stadium

Plea: Ukrainian athlete Lyudmyla Pavlenko wears a shirt which reads 'peace' during the ceremony

Plea: Ukrainian athlete Lyudmyla Pavlenko wears a shirt which reads 'peace' during the ceremony

Dancing in the dark: Dancers with light-up costumes take part in the ceremony which was choreographed to Russian classical music

Dancing in the dark: Dancers with light-up costumes take part in the ceremony which was choreographed to Russian classical music

Team: The performers also included dancers from Russia's Federation of Wheelchair Sport Dancing who lit up the stadium with their striking costumes

Team: The performers also included dancers from Russia's Federation of Wheelchair Sport Dancing who lit up the stadium with their striking costumes

Britain fared well at the Games, picking up a silver medal on the first day thanks to visually-impaired Jade Etherington who won silver in the downhill skiing event along with guide Caroline Powell.

Blind skier Kelly Gallagher later picked up a gold medal in the Super-G event, along with her guide Charlotte Evans.

Kelly, who hails from Northern Ireland, has congenital oculocutaneous albinism, a disorder which involves a lack of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes and which also causes vision problems like blurring.

Sight: Fireworks explode over the Fisht stadium in the Black Sea city of Sochi as the Winter Paralympic Games come to a close

Sight: Fireworks explode over the Fisht stadium in the Black Sea city of Sochi as the Winter Paralympic Games come to a close

Goodbye: Light-up dancers perform during the closing ceremony in outfits themed around the colours of the Russian national flag

Goodbye: Light-up dancers perform during the closing ceremony in outfits themed around the colours of the Russian national flag

Big finish: Towards the end of the ceremony athletes handed flowers to some of the 8,000-strong volunteer force which helped to organise the Paralympic Games

Big finish: Towards the end of the ceremony athletes handed flowers to some of the 8,000-strong volunteer force which helped to organise the Paralympic Games

Farewell: The mayor of Sochi, Anatoly Pakhomov, passed the flag on to the mayor of the South-Korean city of Pyeongchang, Lee Seok-rae, where the next games will take place

Farewell: The mayor of Sochi, Anatoly Pakhomov, passed the flag on to the mayor of the South-Korean city of Pyeongchang, Lee Seok-rae, where the next games will take place

When she skis, she can't see anything at the snow level but Charlotte provides crucial instructions, hollering non-stop into the headset that acts as an invisible link between the two skiers, even when they travel at speeds of 60mph.

The ceremony took place as, just 300 miles away, Crimeans voted in favour of annexing themselves to Russia.

The political crisis in Ukraine has overshadowed much of the Paralympic Games as troops from Moscow occupied key military bases inside the southern province of Crimea, which is on the other side of the Black Sea from Sochi.


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I heard the final of the wheelchair hurdle head butt was a close thing

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I didn't really understand the first comment..... did we all not see this televised because a New Zealand company charged broadcasting fees that were too high? These athletes deserve their day in the sun... even a Russian sun.

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Well, Sky hijacked the winter Olympics in New Zealand so we no coverage at all unless we wished to pay their sky-high prices. I think it's a shame... all the athletes deserve better coverage and sod Sky. It's just rubbish by another name.

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Congratulations to all the athletes, what a great job they did. Thank goodness everything went off safely, no problems.

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Posturing Putin and his "games" ... How he's managed to avert the gaze of the world from his warmongering in Crimea..

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Should NEVER have happened. EVERY Country should have pulled it's athletes.

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Since 1994 the National Lottery has contributed Hundreds of Millions of pounds to financially supporting Olympic and Para-Olympic sportsmen and woman. What as the return on investment been? Just 6 medals. Isn't it about time this money was now re-directed and spent on the NHS?

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it baffles me how one person can be so wrong.

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Who won the wheelchair ski jump?

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Putin always looks as if he is suffering from massive indigestion!.

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No - that's to come.

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Beautiful!

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