Day 14 - Closing Ceremony of the 8th Simlympic Games in Ylmeria

George: Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome once more to the December Simlympic Stadium, here in the capital city of the Shalman Empire, Ylmeria!

Anna: Welcome and you are watching the closing ceremony of the Games of the 8th Simlympiad! Today is a very special day for the Empire, as it is also the Anniversary of the Confederacy of Free Regions, of which the Shalman Empire holds the Chancellery.

George: True, and the Shalmans have promised us the most amazing fireworks display “in all time”, as the Prime Minister put it!

Anna: Well let us see what they have in store for us, as the Closing Ceremony begins! We see dancers in the stadium…

George: Yes, and as the song comes to an end, they appear to have formed the Greek word for “Hello” in the center of the stadium! What a way to welcome us all!





Anna: Very nice, would you not agree?

George: Yes, very! And now some famous Shalman artists will perform live for us, here in the Simlympic Stadium.







[YOUTUBE] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Lv7jDkJl0&feature=channel_page[/YOUTUBE]

George: that last song was performed in Atario, the other official language of the Empire, alongside Greek.

(Atario is a made-up language, which sounds like German but is based on ancient Greek grammar. Just pretend its Atario and not German )

Anna: Yes, and this marks the end of the artistic part of the closing. Now the Imperial Band will play the Hymn to His Majesty, the national anthem of the Shalman Empire!

Greek Voice: Κυρίες και κύριοι, ο Ύμνος στην Μεγαλειώτητά Tου!

English Voice: Ladies and gentlemen, the Hymn to His Majesty!

[YOUTUBE] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qm9QbFdZE&feature=channel_page[/YOUTUBE]









Anna: And now, the moment we have been waiting for: the athletes final entrance!

Greek Voice: Κυρίες και κύριοι, οι αθλητές του κόσμου!

English Voice: Ladies and gentlemen, the athletes of the world!





Greek Voice: Και τώρα η απονομή των μεταλλίων για τον Mαραθώνιο!

English Voice: And now the award ceremony for the Marathon!








Anna: Is there a better gift for the Empire than two medals in the Marathon?

George: No, there isn’t! [laughing]

Anna: and now the President of the International Simlympic Committee and the President of the Organizing Committee for the Ylmeria 2008 Simlympic Games will make their closing speeches.



The President of the Organizing Committee for the Ylmeria 2008 Simlympic Games:

Welcome all, for the last time to the center of the Ylmeria 2008 Simlympic Games. The Shalman Empire has tried to give the world the best Simlympic Games in History, and we believed we have achieved this goal. We have built the greatest venues here, in our country. We have welcomed each and every one of you to our three Simlympic Cities. And we have won our bet: we have made you feel at home, without discrimination according to race or ethnicity. The Shalman Empire has shown the world what the true spirit of the Simlympics is, and we could not have done this without the support of the peoples of the Empire. Athletes here gave their best. Others won medals, others did not. What is important is that you give all you got, and that is exactly what athletes here did. We wish to thank everyone for attending these games, for which the Empire and the City of Ylmeria will be remembered for. Thank you all!

President of the ISC

People of the Shalman Empire, citizens of COFR, Athletes of the world, fellow ISC members,

The December Simlympics have now come to an end, a grand, beautiful end to what has been a grand and beautiful games. The grandeur and beauty of the Simlympics is down to one person, philly_boy, the chief of the Ylmeria Simlympic organising committee, has worked tirelessly not just for the two weeks of the games but for the past two months since the host city was announced. Thank you philly .

A few months a go I stood in a similar place to where I am here tonight, in the centre of the magnificent Simlympic stadium in Penthesili, on that night I remarked that 'Penthesili has blown away any previous expectations of what hosting the Simlympics takes, and I'm sure you will all agree that Penthesili '08 has set the bar [when it comes to hosting the games]'. Well, two weeks a go the city of Ylmeria has risen to that bar and has managed to keep to it's height ever since then, and tonight the organising committee has truly managed to rival the splendor of Penthesili.

This Simlympics has seen the arrival of many new additions, we completely re did our list of sports; offering more events and more medals, hopefully the increased medal count has ensured every competitor managed to get a share of the silverware (Or goldware/bronzeware, we don't discriminate ). December also saw the arrival of PAS, allowing competitors to have a greater say in how their athletes do, we hope this has added a new element to the games and has made them a more exciting event to watch. We also managed to provide something a lot of you have been asking for; a Winter Simlympics, I'd like to thank Canuck who has been working hard on it for the past few weeks and will continue to do so until February when the games begin.

And now, I'd like to take this opportunity to unveil one more thing, which unfortunately didn't make it in time for this games. Firstly, I'd like to thank dljfrn2000 who originally proposed the idea to the ISC. The idea behind this new feature is to further increase the fun for competitors, at the moment you only know how you've done if you win a medal, so for most of you you'll only see your nations name 2, 3 maybe 4 times during the games. But that's going to change. We're introducing full preliminaries, groups, qualifications, heats etc. You'll be able to watch your gold medal winning sprinter on his path from pre-games qualification, to the first set of heats, to the semi-final, to the final and finally to the podium. You can watch your baseball team crash out against Rorysville in the group stages. Or cheer as your sailors sail past New Rhodesia on the final turn.

So, be on the look out for this in the first Simlympics of 2009 as well as during the Winter Simlympics. And now all that remains is for me to thank all of you competitors for making this Simlympics, without you there would simply be no games. Whether you won a medal, or fell at the last hurdle I hope you've had a fantastic time in Ylmeria and I hope to see you again in a few months time, or possibly even on the snow covered mountains.

Σας ευχαριστώ και καλό βράδυ.
Thank you and good night!

Anna: Now that the speeches are over with, the Simlympic Flag will be taken down, and will be handed over to the next host city in three months time.



George: Are you curious about who the next host will be? I sure am!

Anna: Yes, and I hear we have some very interesting countries bidding for the next Games!

George: Well, Ylmeria has done her part and now it is time to move on. The time has come: the Simlympic Cauldron can be extinguished (sorry, I do not know the appropriate English word ).

Anna: And Yiota, the little girl chosen to have the honor of doing it, will now enter the stadium.



George: and as she blows, the flame is out at the Simlympic Stadium in Ylmeria! What follows is a spectacular fireworks display for the event of the closing of the Games and the Anniversary of the Confederacy of Free Regions, which is actually in two minutes, as it is two minutes to twelve here! Enjoy everyone!

Anna: Goodnight from all us here, and thank you for joining us on this wonderful Simlympic trip! Kalinihta as they say here!

Congratulations philly_boy ! Everything was amazing I'm sure we will all remember Ylmeria and these beautiful Games.

Thanks for posting this on my behalf slacker, and thanks ChampionM

Very nice! well done

Congrats on a very well hosted games philly_boy.

Great opening and closing ceremonies as well.

Great games, philly_boy. Thanks for hosting. And thanks to Slacker, too, for running the games.

What a hell of a presentation. Ylmeria is the place to be. Thank you for representing the COFR, and thank you for hosting such a beautiful presentation.

And that's marks the end of the December Simlympics 2008. Great show I must say.

Now, I wonder who will be the next host city of the Simlympics...

very well done games philly....I'd like to ech slackers statement as you kept the bar where it was raised in the August games and did a tremendous job. and mike very nice speach(best one yet I think)

now we can all turn our attention to the snowy covered mountains for the Winter Games in February 09 then onto the summer games in the spring!

Great job on the closing ceremony and the Simlympics as a whole

you have organised really great games Philly. The presentation, the fireworks, everything. Well done once again mike