# 2010 Winter Olympics Parade of Nations

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

| Order | Nation | Flag bearer | Sport |
| 1 | Greece (GRE) | Athanassios Tsakiris | Biathlon |
| 2 | Albania (ALB) | Erjon Tola | Alpine skiing |
| 3 | Algeria (ALG) | Mehdi-Selim Khelifi | Cross-country skiing |
| 4 | Andorra (AND) | Lluis Marin Tarroch | Snowboarding |
| 5 | Argentina (ARG) | Cristian Javier Simari Birkner | Alpine skiing |
| 6 | Armenia (ARM) | Arsen Nersisyan | Alpine skiing |
| 7 | Australia (AUS) | Torah Bright | Snowboarding |
| 8 | Austria (AUT) | Andreas Linger & Wolfgang Linger | Luge |
| 9 | Azerbaijan (AZE) | Fuad Guliyev (Fuad Quliyev) | Skating official |
| 10 | Belarus (BLR) | Oleg Antonenko | Ice hockey |
| 11 | Belgium (BEL) | Kevin van der Perren | Figure skating |
| 12 | Bermuda (BER) | Tucker Murphy | Cross-country skiing |
| 13 | Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) | Žana Novaković | Alpine skiing |
| 14 | Brazil (BRA) | Isabel Clark Ribeiro | Snowboarding |
| 15 | Bulgaria (BUL) | Aleksandra Zhekova | Snowboarding |
| 16 | Cayman Islands (CAY) | Dow Travers | Alpine skiing |
| 17 | Chile (CHI) | Jorge Mandrú | Alpine skiing |
| 18 | China (CHN) | Han Xiaopeng | Freestyle skiing |
| 19 | Colombia (COL) | Cynthia Denzler | Alpine skiing |
| 20 | Croatia (CRO) | Jakov Fak | Biathlon |
| 21 | Cyprus (CYP) | Christopher Papamichalopoulos | Alpine skiing |
| 22 | Czech Republic (CZE) | Jaromír Jágr | Ice hockey |
| 23 | North Korea (PRK) | Ri Song-Chol | Figure skating |
| 24 | Denmark (DEN) | Sophie Fjellvang-Sølling | Freestyle skiing |
| 25 | Estonia (EST) | Roland Lessing | Biathlon |
| 26 | Ethiopia (ETH) | Robel Teklemariam | Cross-country skiing |
| 27 | Finland (FIN) | Ville Peltonen | Ice hockey |
| 28 | Macedonia (MKD) | Antonio Ristevski | Alpine skiing |
| 29 | France (FRA) | Vincent Defrasne | Biathlon |
| 30 | Georgia (GEO) | Iason Abramashvili | Alpine skiing |
| 31 | Germany (GER) | André Lange | Bobsleigh |
| 32 | Ghana (GHA) | Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong | Alpine skiing |
| 33 | Great Britain (GBR) | Shelley Rudman | Skeleton |
| 34 | Hong Kong (HKG) | Han Yue Shueng | Short track speed skating |
| 35 | Hungary (HUN) | Júlia Sebestyén | Figure skating |
| 36 | Iceland (ISL) | Björgvin Björgvinsson | Alpine skiing |
| 37 | India (IND) | Shiva Keshavan | Luge |
| 38 | Iran (IRI) | Marjan Kalhor | Alpine skiing |
| 39 | Ireland (IRL) | Aoife Hoey | Bobsleigh |
| 40 | Israel (ISR) | Alexandra Zaretsky | Figure skating |
| 41 | Italy (ITA) | Giorgio Di Centa | Cross-country skiing |
| 42 | Jamaica (JAM) | Errol Kerr | Freestyle skiing |
| 43 | Japan (JPN) | Tomomi Okazaki | Speed skating |
| 44 | Kazakhstan (KAZ) | Dias Keneshev | Biathlon |
| 45 | South Korea (KOR) | Kang Kwang-Bae | Bobsleigh |
| 46 | Kyrgyzstan (KGZ) | Dmitry Trelevski | Alpine skiing |
| 47 | Latvia (LAT) | Martins Dukurs | Skeleton |
| 48 | Lebanon (LIB) | Chirine Njeim | Alpine skiing |
| 49 | Liechtenstein (LIE) | Richard Wunder | Bobsleigh |
| 50 | Lithuania (LTU) | Irina Terentjeva | Cross-country skiing |
| 51 | Mexico (MEX) | Hubertus von Hohenlohe | Alpine skiing |
| 52 | Moldova (MDA) | Victor Pinzaru | Biathlon |
| 53 | Monaco (MON) | Alexandra Coletti | Alpine skiing |
| 54 | Mongolia (MGL) | Erdene-Ochir Ochirsuren | Cross-country skiing |
| 55 | Montenegro (MNE) | Bojan Kosić | Alpine skiing |
| 56 | Morocco (MAR) | Samir Azzimani | Alpine skiing |
| 57 | Nepal (NEP) | Dachhiri Sherpa | Cross-country skiing |
| 58 | Netherlands (NED) | Timothy Beck | Bobsleigh |
| 59 | New Zealand (NZL) | Juliane Bray | Snowboarding |
| 60 | Norway (NOR) | Tommy Jakobsen | Ice hockey |
| 61 | Pakistan (PAK) | Muhammad Abbas | Alpine skiing |
| 62 | Peru (PER) | Roberto Carcelén | Cross-country skiing |
| 63 | Poland (POL) | Konrad Niedźwiedzki | Speed skating |
| 64 | Portugal (POR) | Danny Silva | Cross-country skiing |
| 65 | Romania (ROU) | Éva Tófalvi | Biathlon |
| 66 | Russia (RUS) | Aleksey Morozov | Ice hockey |
| 67 | San Marino (SMR) | Marino Cardelli | Alpine skiing |
| 68 | Senegal (SEN) | Leyti Seck | Alpine skiing |
| 69 | Serbia (SRB) | Jelena Lolović | Alpine skiing |
| 70 | Slovakia (SVK) | Žigmund Pálffy | Ice hockey |
| 71 | Slovenia (SLO) | Tina Maze | Alpine skiing |
| 72 | South Africa (RSA) | Oliver Kraas | Cross-country skiing |
| 73 | Spain (ESP) | Queralt Castellet | Snowboarding |
| 74 | Sweden (SWE) | Peter Forsberg | Ice hockey |
| 75 | Switzerland (SUI) | Stéphane Lambiel | Figure skating |
| 76 | Chinese Taipei (TPE) | Ma Chih-hung | Luge |
| 77 | Tajikistan (TJK) | Alisher Kudratov | Alpine skiing* |
| 78 | Turkey (TUR) | Kelime Aydın | Cross-country skiing |
| 79 | Ukraine (UKR) | Liliya Ludan | Luge |
| 80 | United States (USA) | Mark Grimmette | Luge |
| 81 | Uzbekistan (UZB) | Oleg Shamaev | Alpine skiing |
| 82 | Canada (CAN) | Clara Hughes | Speed skating |
* Kudratov carried the flag even though he wasn't scheduled to compete.