 The Olympic flame was extinguished in Turin on Sunday |
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge hailed a successful Turin Games on the final day of competition. Rogge described the IOC as "happy with the Games" and praised the organisers' battle against doping.
"I refer specifically to probably the best quality of sports infrastructure - security worked really well," he said.
"The athletes are happy. We are very pleased the athletes in competition came to a very high level."
He marked out Cindy Klassen as the woman of the Games after her five medals for Canada in speed skating.
He also singled out Austria's Hermann Maier, who bounced back from career-threatening injury to win a giant slalom bronze.
Rogge insisted the Games movement and the IOC was winning the war against doping, despite continuing drug scandals.
After 16 days of competition, more than 800 urine tests and 362 blood samples were taken and only one athlete failed a drugs test.
Russia's Olga Pyleva was stripped of her 15km biathlon silver medal and banned for two years, while 10 Austrian athletes are still being investigated despite testing negative, following after a raid sparked by the presence of a banned coach.
"We have to fight doping with all we have," added Rogge. "We believe that today we are on par with what science is giving us in terms of the capability of different drugs.
"We have narrowed the gap that existed a couple years ago very much."
Rogge's sentiments came a day after the head of Turin's Olympic organising committee lauded the Games.
Turin overcame an unpromising build-up, featuring slow ticket sales, transport woes, budget deficits and raids by tax police on organising committee offices.
"I'm very satisfied. We've succeeded in giving a strong flavour of Italian style," said Valentino Castellani. "We had some financial difficulties but we overcame them.
"I started feeling more relaxed two days after the opening ceremony when we saw the transportation system was working correctly.
"It was one of the most sensitive points of our operation."
MMIX
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I'm very satisfied - we've succeeded in giving a strong flavour of Italian style