During the Parade of Nations within the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics opening 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.
By tradition, Greece entered first as the originator of the Olympics, [1] and China entered last as host. Per a new rule introduced by the International Olympic Committee at the 2020 Summer Olympics, [2] Italy entered second-to-last as the upcoming host of the 2026 Winter Olympics. All nations in between entered in the order of the host nation's language, Simplified Chinese. [3]
As part of sanctions due to the Russian doping scandal, Russia was not allowed to directly use its name or flag, and entered under the acronym "ROC" after the Russian Olympic Committee and its flag.
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.
As Chinese characters do not have an alphabetical order, they were sorted based on stroke count. [4] Specifically:
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.
2014 Winter Olympics Parade of Nations was part of the opening ceremony at the 2014 Winter Olympics. The national team from each nation participating in the Olympic Games was preceded by their national flag flag bearer into Fisht Olympic Stadium in the host city of Sochi, Russia. The flag bearer was an athlete of each national delegation chosen, to represent the athletes, either by the National Olympic Committee or by the national team.
Japan competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Armenia competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Australia competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Austria competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Belgium competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Belarus competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Croatia competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Greece competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. As the founding nation of the Olympic games and in keeping with tradition, Greece entered first during the opening ceremony. Greece has yet to win a medal in the Winter Olympics.
Hungary competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Kazakhstan competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Turkey competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Ukraine competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022, in its eighth appearance as an independent nation.
Hong Kong, a special administrative region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China, competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. The delegation competed under the formal name Hong Kong, China. This was the SAR's sixth appearance at a Winter Olympic Games, since its first appearance in 2002.
Madagascar competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Azerbaijan competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
The Republic of China, commonly known as "Taiwan", competed as Chinese Taipei at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China from 4 to 20 February 2022. Because of the political status of Taiwan and the One-China policy, the ROC national symbols will not be used as stipulated in the Nagoya Resolution in 1979 forcing the ROC athletes to compete under the Chinese Taipei moniker since 1984.
The Virgin Islands competed at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. It last competed in 2014.
During the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China the flag bearers of 91 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) arrived into Beijing National Stadium on February 20. The flag bearers from each participating country entered the stadium informally in single file, and behind them marched all the athletes. The flags of each country were not necessarily carried by the same flag bearer as in the opening ceremony.
The JOC also named speed skater Arisa Go and Nordic combined skier Akito Watabe as flagbearers for the opening ceremony of the Feb. 4-20 games.
 Olympic Games national flag bearers by year | |
|---|---|
| Summer Olympics | |
| Winter Olympics | |
| Intercalated Games | |
| Summer Youth Olympics | |
| Winter Youth Olympics | |
