The host country of the Olympic Games tries to make the opening and closing ceremonies memorable, to use all possible achievements of technical thought, to give a bright national flavor. However, some traditions remain unchanged and serve to decorate each closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Each closing ceremony is accompanied by a general march of athletes. All delegations that took part in the games enter the stadium in a single column. One athlete from each country carries the flag, and all athletes march behind it, without any grouping or distinction. During the ceremony, the athletes mingle and disperse around the stadium, forming together, as it were, "one people."
The national anthem of three countries is played: Greece (in respect of the country for which the Olympic Games were invented), the host country and the country in which the next Winter or Summer Olympics will be held. At the same time, the flags of these countries are raised - the flag of Greece on the right flagpole, the flag of the host country on the central one, the left flagpole remains for the country in which the next Olympics are planned.
This is followed by the Antwerp ceremony, during which the head of the city that organized the games hands over a special Olympic flag to the President of the International Olympic Committee. For this purpose, there are three flags, decorated with fringes and tied to the flagpole with colored ribbons.
This is the Antwerp flag provided to the International Committee at the 1920 Summer Olympics by the City of Antwerp and passed on to the following host cities of the Summer Games up to the 1988 Games in Seoul. The second flag is the flag of Seoul, handed over by the mayor of the city to the mayor of Barcelona in 1988, and it is also intended for cities hosting the Summer Games. At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, a third flag appeared and is passed on to each city that will host the next Winter Olympics.
The President of the International Olympic Committee, having received the flag from the head of the city hosting the Olympics, hands it over to the mayor of the next city in which the Olympics are planned. He, in turn, waves this flag eight times. The nation hosting the next Olympics presents its culture with theater and dance performances.
The speeches are then given by the President of the host Olympic Organizing Committee and the President of the International Olympic Committee. They officially close the Olympic Games and invite them to meet again in four years for the next Games. To the sound of the playing anthem, the Olympic flame is extinguished, the flag is lowered and carried away from the stadium.
