During the Parade of Nations within the
Beijing2022 Winter Olympicsopening ceremony on February 4, athletes and officials from each participating country marched in the
Beijing National Stadium preceded by their flag and placard bearer bearing the respective country's name. Each flag bearer was chosen either by the nation's
National Olympic Committee or by the team of athletes themselves.
Parade order
Athletes entered the stadium in an order dictated by the Olympic tradition. As the originator of the Olympics, the
Greek team entered first.[1]
Countries marched in order of the Chinese language.[2] The
collation method used was based on the names as written in
Simplified Chinese characters and is similar to
that used in Chinese dictionaries. The names were sorted by the number of
strokes in the first character of the name, then by the stroke order of the character (in the order 橫竖撇捺折, c.f.
Wubi method), then the number of strokes and stroke order of the second character, then next character and so on.[3] For example, this placed
San Marino (圣马力诺) in 28th position, just ahead of
Kyrgyzstan (吉尔吉斯斯坦) because the initial character for "San Marino" (圣) is written in 5 strokes, while that for "Kyrgyzstan" (吉) is written in 6 strokes.
The country that will host the next
Winter Olympics,
Italy, marched before the host nation China entered, instead of entering between New Zealand and Serbia, according to the Chinese collation order.[4]
As part of its doping penalty, Russia competes under the acronym "ROC" and the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee, and the name of the committee in full cannot be used to refer to the delegation.
Announcers in the stadium read off the names of the marching nations in
Mandarin Chinese (the official language of the host country),
English and
French (the official languages of the Olympics) with music accompanying the athletes as they marched into the stadium.
According to the current version of the
Olympic Charter, each nation had the option of having two flag bearers (a man and a woman) in an effort to promote gender equality.
List
The following is a list of each country's flag bearer. The list is sorted by the sequence that each nation appeared in the Parade of Nations.[5] The names are given in their official designations by the
IOC, and the Chinese names follow their official designations by the
Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
This table is sortable by country name in English, country name in
simplified Chinese, country name in
pinyin, flag bearer name, and flag bearer sport.
^ROC is sorted under a
Chinese transcription of its English abbreviation, 罗克 (Luōkè). No Chinese name was displayed on the placard. During the Parade of Nations, the ROC was announced in French, English, and Chinese as "Comité olympique russe," "Russian Olympic Committee," and "俄罗斯奥林匹克委员会" (Èluósī àolínpǐkè wěiyuánhuì) respectively.[35]
^Bowe replaced
Elana Meyers Taylor, who withdrew from the ceremony after testing positive for COVID-19.[43]
During the Parade of Nations within the
Beijing2022 Winter Olympicsopening ceremony on February 4, athletes and officials from each participating country marched in the
Beijing National Stadium preceded by their flag and placard bearer bearing the respective country's name. Each flag bearer was chosen either by the nation's
National Olympic Committee or by the team of athletes themselves.
Parade order
Athletes entered the stadium in an order dictated by the Olympic tradition. As the originator of the Olympics, the
Greek team entered first.[1]
Countries marched in order of the Chinese language.[2] The
collation method used was based on the names as written in
Simplified Chinese characters and is similar to
that used in Chinese dictionaries. The names were sorted by the number of
strokes in the first character of the name, then by the stroke order of the character (in the order 橫竖撇捺折, c.f.
Wubi method), then the number of strokes and stroke order of the second character, then next character and so on.[3] For example, this placed
San Marino (圣马力诺) in 28th position, just ahead of
Kyrgyzstan (吉尔吉斯斯坦) because the initial character for "San Marino" (圣) is written in 5 strokes, while that for "Kyrgyzstan" (吉) is written in 6 strokes.
The country that will host the next
Winter Olympics,
Italy, marched before the host nation China entered, instead of entering between New Zealand and Serbia, according to the Chinese collation order.[4]
As part of its doping penalty, Russia competes under the acronym "ROC" and the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee, and the name of the committee in full cannot be used to refer to the delegation.
Announcers in the stadium read off the names of the marching nations in
Mandarin Chinese (the official language of the host country),
English and
French (the official languages of the Olympics) with music accompanying the athletes as they marched into the stadium.
According to the current version of the
Olympic Charter, each nation had the option of having two flag bearers (a man and a woman) in an effort to promote gender equality.
List
The following is a list of each country's flag bearer. The list is sorted by the sequence that each nation appeared in the Parade of Nations.[5] The names are given in their official designations by the
IOC, and the Chinese names follow their official designations by the
Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
This table is sortable by country name in English, country name in
simplified Chinese, country name in
pinyin, flag bearer name, and flag bearer sport.
^ROC is sorted under a
Chinese transcription of its English abbreviation, 罗克 (Luōkè). No Chinese name was displayed on the placard. During the Parade of Nations, the ROC was announced in French, English, and Chinese as "Comité olympique russe," "Russian Olympic Committee," and "俄罗斯奥林匹克委员会" (Èluósī àolínpǐkè wěiyuánhuì) respectively.[35]
^Bowe replaced
Elana Meyers Taylor, who withdrew from the ceremony after testing positive for COVID-19.[43]