During the Parade of Nations at the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, held beginning at 6:00 PM PST on February 12, 2010, 82 athletes bearing the flags of their respective nations led their national delegations as they paraded into BC Place Stadium in the host city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Athletes entered the stadium in an order dictated by tradition. As the originator of the Olympics, Greece entered first. Canadian delegates entered last, representing the host nation. The names of the nations were announced first in French and followed by English, the official languages of the Olympics, which also happened to be the official languages of the host nation. The nations entered in alphabetic order of their country names in English because it is the more dominant of the two languages in Vancouver and in the province of British Columbia.
Delegations from North Korea and South Korea marched in separate delegations, unlike in the 2006 Winter Olympics when they marched together.
Of the flag-bearers who led their respective delegations, all but one were athletes, the exception being Fuad Guliyev, a skating official from Azerbaijan. The sport which was most represented among the flag-bearers was alpine skiing, as alpine skiers led 26 delegations. Only one delegation was led by a short track speed skater, Hong Kong, led by Han Yue Shueng. Marjan Kalhor, an alpine skier and the flag-bearer for Iran, was both the first female flag bearer from her country and the first female athlete from her country to participate in the Winter Olympics. It was erroneously pointed out by a Canadian TV commentator that Tomomi Okazaki was the first female flag bearer for Japan. This title goes to Seiko Hashimoto in Calgary 1988. Other prominent flag bearers included Canadian speed skater and five-time Olympian Clara Hughes, American luger Mark Grimmette, who had helped carry the American flag during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and Czech hockey player Jaromír Jágr. Hughes is the only Olympian ever to win multiple medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Iason Abramashvili, flag bearer for Georgia, along with the other members of his delegation, wore black armbands during the march and received a standing ovation in memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger who was killed in an accident during a training run earlier in the day.
Parade of Nations
OrderNationFlag bearerSport 1 Greek Olympic Committee naming Tsakiris being named flagbearer for 2010 Winter Olympics. - accessed 11 February 2010. Biathlon 2 Alpine skiing 3 Cross-country skiing 4 Tarroch named 2010 flagbearer. - accessed 11 February 2010. Snowboarding 5 Alpine skiing 6 Alpine skiing 7 Snowboarding 8 & Wolfgang Linger Luge 9 Skating official 10 Ice hockey 11 News of van der Perren named flagbearer. - accessed 11 February 2010. Figure skating 12 Cross-country skiing 13 Alpine skiing 14 Snowboarding 15 Snowboarding 16 Alpine skiing 17 Alpine skiing 18 Han Xiaopeng Freestyle skiing 19 Alpine skiing 20 Biathlon 21 Alpine skiing 22 Ice hockey 23 Ri Song-Chol Figure skating 24 Freestyle skiing 25 4 February 2010 Estonian Olympic Committee announcement of Lessing named flagbearer for the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. - accessed 11 February 2010. Biathlon 26 Cross-country skiing 27 Ice hockey 28 Alpine skiing 29 French Olympic Committee announcement of Defranse named flagbearer. - accessed 11 February 2010. Biathlon 30 Alpine skiing 31 Lange named flagbearer for German team - accessed 11 February 2010. Bobsleigh 32 Alpine skiing 33 Skeleton 34 Han Yue Shueng Short track speed skating 35 Figure skating 36 Alpine skiing 37 Shiva Keshavan to be flag-bearer of 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, February 12, 2010 Luge 38 Alpine skiing 39 Irish Olympic Committee 9 February 2010 announcement of Aoife Hoey selected as flagbearer for the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. - accessed 11 February 2010. Bobsleigh 40 Figure skating 41 Gallery of Di Centa being named flagbearer for Italy at 2010 Opening Ceremony. - accessed 11 February 2010. Cross-country skiing 42 Freestyle skiing 43 Japanese Winter Olympic delegation launched Speed skating 44 Biathlon 45 Kang Kwang-Bae Bobsleigh 46 Alpine skiing 47 Latvian Olympic Committee article on Martins Dukurs named flagbearer for the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Skeleton 48 Alpine skiing 49 Bobsleigh 50 Cross-country skiing 51 Alpine skiing 52 Biathlon 53 Alpine skiing 54 Cross-country skiing 55 Alpine skiing 56 Alpine skiing 57 Cross-country skiing 58 Beck draagt Nederlandse vlag Bobsleigh 59 Snowboarding 60 Ice hockey 61 Alpine skiing 62 Cross-country skiing 63 Speed skating 64 Cross-country skiing 65 Biathlon 66 Ice hockey 67 Alpine skiing 68 Alpine skiing 69 Alpine skiing 70 Ice hockey 71 Alpine skiing 72 Cross-country skiing 73 Snowboarding 74 Ice hockey 75 Figure skating 76 Ma Chih-hung Luge 77 Alpine skiing* 78 Cross-country skiing 79 Luge 80 USALuge.org article on Grimette carrying the US flag for the 2010 Winter Olympics. - accessed 11 February 2010. Luge 81 Alpine skiing 82 Speed skating Kudratov carried the flag even though he wasn't scheduled to compete.
See also 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony flag bearers 2010 Winter Paralympics national flag bearers 2008 Summer Olympics national flag bearers
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