2018 Winter Paralympics Parade of Nations

During the 2018 Winter Paralympics Parade of Nations at the 2018 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony, beginning at 20:00 KST (UTC+9) on 9 March 2018, athletes bearing the flags of their respective nations led their national delegations as they paraded into the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in the host city of Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Background

Athletes entered the stadium in an order dictated by Paralympic tradition. Greece entered first, while the host nation, South Korea, marched last. Other teams entered in alphabetical order based on the names of countries in the Korean language. The collation method used is based on the names as written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet. The names of the nations were announced English and Korean, the official languages of the Paralympic movement and the host nation, in accordance with traditional and International Paralympic Committee (IOC) guidelines.

Whilst most countries entered under their short names, a few entered under more formal or alternative names, sometimes due to political or naming disputes. North Korean and South Korean teams marched on their own, after the leaders of both Koreas failed to arrange for both teams to march together in the opening ceremony.[1] After a Russian state-sponsored doping program was exposed following the 2014 Winter Paralympics, the Russian Paralympic Committee was suspended, and selected athletes were allowed to compete neutrally under the IOC designation of "Neutral Paralympic Athletes" (패럴림픽 중립 선수), under 중. In addition, the United States, Iran, North Korea, China and South Korea all entered under their formal names, respectively the "United States of America", "Islamic Republic of Iran", "Democratic People's Republic of Korea", "People's Republic of China" and "Republic of Korea".

A record of 49 nations entered the stadium with a combined total of 569 athletes. Three nations made their Winter Paralympic debut, namely Georgia, North Korea and Tajikistan.

List

Below is a list of parading countries and their announced flag bearer, in the same order as the parade. This is sortable by country name, flag bearer's name and flag bearer's sport. Names are given in the form officially designated by the IPC.[2]

Order	Nation	Hangul	Roman Transliteration	Flag bearer	Sport
1	Greece (GRE)	그리스	geu ri seu	Konstantinos Petrakis	Snowboarding
2	Netherlands (NED)	네덜란드	ne deol ran deu	Bibian Mentel-Spee	Snowboarding
3	Norway (NOR)	노르웨이	no reu we i	Birgit Skarstein	Cross-country skiing
4	New Zealand (NZL)	뉴질랜드	nyu jil raen deu	Corey Peters	Alpine skiing
5	Denmark (DEN)	덴마크	den ma keu	Daniel Wagner	Snowboarding
6	Germany (GER)	독일	dok il	Andrea Eskau	Biathlon Cross-country skiing
7	Romania (ROU)	루마니아	ru ma ni a	Mihaita Papara	Snowboarding
8	Mexico (MEX)	멕시코	mek si ko	Arly Velásquez	Alpine skiing
9	Mongolia (MGL)	몽골	mong gol	Ganbold Batmunkh	Cross-country skiing
10	United States (USA)	미국	mi guk	Mike Schultz	Snowboarding
11	Belgium (BEL)	벨기에	bel gi e	Eléonor Sana	Alpine skiing
12	Belarus (BLR)	벨라루스	bel ra ru seu	Liudmila Vauchok	Cross-country skiing
13	Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH)	보스니아 헤르체고비나	bo seu ni a he reu che go bi na	Ilma Kazazić	Alpine skiing
14	Bulgaria (BUL)	불가리아	bul ga ri a	Svetoslav Georgiev	Cross-country skiing
15	Brazil (BRA)	브라질	beu ra jil	Aline Dos Santos Rocha	Cross-country skiing
16	Serbia (SRB)	세르비아	se reu bi a	Miloš Zarić	Cross-country skiing
17	Sweden (SWE)	스웨덴	seu we den	Ronny Persson	Wheelchair curling
18	Switzerland (SUI)	스위스	seu wi seu	Felix Wagner	Wheelchair curling
19	Spain (ESP)	스페인	seu pe in	Astrid Fina	Snowboarding
20	Slovakia (SVK)	슬로바키아	seul ro ba ki a	Henrieta Farkašová & Natália Šubrtová	Alpine skiing
21	Slovenia (SLO)	슬로베니아	seul ro be ni a	Jernej Slivnik	Alpine skiing
22	Armenia (ARM)	아르메니아	a reu me ni a	Stasik Nazaryan	Cross-country skiing
23	Argentina (ARG)	아르헨티나	a reu hen ti na	Enrique Plantey	Alpine skiing
24	Iceland (ISL)	아이슬란드	a i seul ran deu	Hilmar Snaer Ovarsson	Alpine skiing
25	Andorra (AND)	안도라	an do ra	Roger Puig Davi	Alpine skiing
26	Great Britain (GBR)	영국	yeong guk	Owen Pick	Snowboarding
27	Australia (AUS)	오스트레일리아	o seu teu re il ri a	Joany Badenhorst	Snowboarding
28	Austria (AUT)	오스트리아	o seu teu ri a	Claudia Loesch	Alpine skiing
29	Uzbekistan (UZB)	우즈베키스탄	u jeu be ki seu tan	Yokutkhon Kholbekova	Cross-country skiing
30	Ukraine (UKR)	우크라이나	u keu ra i na	Vitaliy Lukyanenko	Biathlon Cross-country skiing
31	Iran (IRI)	이란	i ran	Elaheh Gholifallah	Cross-country skiing
32	Italy (ITA)	이탈리아	i tal ri a	Florian Planker	Para ice hockey
33	Japan (JPN)	일본	il bon	Momoka Muraoka	Alpine skiing
34	North Korea (PRK)	조선민주주의인민공화국	jo seon min ju ju ui in min gong hwa guk	Jonghyon Kim	Cross-country skiing
35	Georgia (GEO)	조지아	jo ji a	Temuri Dadiani	Cross-country skiing
36	China (CHN)	중국	jung guk	Yuanyuan Peng	Cross-country skiing
37	Neutral Paralympic Athletes (NPA)	패럴림픽 중립 선수	pae reol lim pik jung nip seon su	POCOG Volunteer	N/A
38	Czech Republic (CZE)	체코	che ko	Miroslav Hrbek	Para ice hockey
39	Chile (CHI)	칠레	chil re	Diego Seguel	Alpine skiing
40	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	카자흐스탄	ka ja heu seu tan	Kairat Kanafin	Cross-country skiing
41	Canada (CAN)	캐나다	kae na da	Brian McKeever	Cross-country skiing
42	Croatia (CRO)	크로아티아	keu ro a ti a	Eva Goluza	Alpine skiing
43	Tajikistan (TJK)	타지키스탄	ta ji ki seu tan	Siyovush Ilyasov	Cross-country skiing
44	Turkey (TUR)	터키	teo ki	Mehmet Cekic	Alpine skiing
45	Poland (POL)	폴란드	pol ran deu	Kamil Rosiek	Biathlon Cross-country skiing
46	France (FRA)	프랑스	peu rang seu	Marie Bochet	Alpine skiing
47	Finland (FIN)	핀란드	pin ran deu	Matti Suur-Hamari	Snowboarding
48	Hungary (HUN)	헝가리	heong ga ri	Zsolt Balogh	Alpine skiing
49	South Korea (KOR)	대한민국	dae han min guk	Sin Eui-hyun	Biathlon Cross-country skiing

References

1. "'Flag dispute' halts joint Korean march". BBC News. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
2. "PyeongChang 2018: Flag bearers revealed". paralympic.org. International Paralympic Committee (IPC). 9 March 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.