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* Says spending will benefit city for years to come

* Most of C$554 million went to capital projects

VANCOUVER, April 15 (Reuters) - The city of Vancouver spent more than C$554 million ($554 million) as host of this year’s Winter Olympics, much of it related to building the athletes village, according to documents released on Thursday.

A report defended the spending since more than C$500 million involved capital projects on Canada’s Pacific Coast that will benefit the city long after the Games.

Televised coverage of the 2010 Paralympics will be a far cry from the thousands of hours international broadcasters devoted to the recently completed Olympic Games.

Whereas hundreds of broadcasters measured their Olympic coverage in hundreds of hours - in some cases filling the airwaves 22 hours a day - just over two dozen companies are left in Vancouver for the Paralympics, and they are counting their hours here by fives, 10s and 50s. And that's the total for the entire 10 days of the Games.

But as far as the Vancouver Organizing Committee and the International Paralympic Committee are concerned, that's not necessarily a bad thing, given it's a vast improvement over past Games.

The second half of these Winter Games has been very productive for this nation. We were successful each and every day with Canadian athletes reaching their full potential.

We won six golds in the last 48 hours of the games. In all respects the "Own the Podium" program instituted by the Federal Government back when Vancouver/Whistler were awarded the Games has become a huge success.

VANCOUVER -- Short track speed skating at the Vancouver Olympics ended up being the Apolo Ohno show. And for good reason.

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Vancouver (AFP) - Joannie Rochette thanked the public for their support in a gala finale which featured gold medallists Kim Yu-Na and Evan Lysacek and brought the curtain down on two weeks of Olympic figure skating on Saturday.

Rochette, 24, skated a Celine Dion-themed tribute "Vole (Flight)" for her mother Thérèse who died just days before her bronze place finish in Vancouver.

VANCOUVER '€” Now the real work starts. With the Olympics over and the Paralympics yet to take place, some of the venues no longer needed are starting to be cleaned out and returned to the public.

But don't expect to get back on to ski slopes or into hockey rinks and community centres too soon, with the exception of weather-plagued Cypress.

VANCOUVER '€” School'€™s out and the marks are in. Here'€™s a look at how we felt the various Canadian sports performed at the 2010 Olympic Games. The Own the Podium 2010 funding is for the 2009-10 season:

Snowboarder Jasey-Jay Anderson of Mont-Tremblant, Que., won gold in men's parallel giant slalom Saturday at Cypress Mountain.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- From the Pacific coast to the shores of the Black Sea. From the peaks of western Canada to the Caucasus mountains of southern Russia. From gleaming North American skyline to palm-fringed resort in the former Soviet Union.

Do svidanya (goodbye) Vancouver. Do vstretchi (see you) in Sochi.

VANCOUVER -- Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk captured gold in a photo finish Saturday in the women's 30 km, Mass Start Classic.