For Russians, Pyeongchang was a success. But doping's shadow still hard to escape.

Russian TV audiences were riveted, and social media exploded, when a hockey team of “athletes from Russia” won gold by defeating a German team in the final days of the Pyeongchang Olympics and then, in defiance of the ban on Russian national symbols, locked arms and began to belt out the Russian national anthem.

That, plus the record-breaking performances of two Russian figure skaters, Alina Zagitova and Yevgenia Medvedeva, appears to have created an entirely unexpected spike in Russian national pride. That may not have been the intention of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in winnowing the number of Russian athletes cleared to take part in the Games and denying them the right to display Russian symbols.