The national team of Greece, as the host nation, entered the stadium last, breaking the tradition that the Greece national team enter first in every Olympic opening ceremony as a tribute for being the original host of both the Ancient and the Modern Olympic Games. However, in a nod to tradition, the Greek flag and flag bearer
Pyrros Dimas entered at the beginning of the parade ahead of
Saint Lucia, to avoid breaking the tradition entirely. Dimas also led the Greece national team when they entered last. Following tradition, other countries entered the stadium in name order in the language of the host country (Greece), which in this case is
Modern Greek.
Kiribati and
Timor-Leste competed for the first time at these Olympic Games, whereas
Afghanistan returned from its eight-year absence after the national Olympic committee had been suspended under the
Taliban regime since 1999. The parade of nations also featured a unified entrance by the athletes of the North and South Korea, holding a specially designed
unification flag bearing the name "Korea" (Κορέα): a white background flag with a blue map of the Korean peninsula; however, the two teams competed separately. Announcers in the stadium read off the names of the marching nations in
Greek, French, and English (the official languages of the host country and of the Olympics, respectively) with the music, performed and played by Dutch musician
Tiësto, accompanying the athletes as they marched into the stadium. Whilst most countries entered under their
short names, a few entered under more formal or alternative names, mostly due to political and naming disputes. The
Republic of Macedonia entered as the "
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia'" ("
Πρώην Γιουγκοσλαβική Δημοκρατία της Μακεδονίας") under Π because of the
naming dispute with Greece. The
Republic of China (commonly known as Taiwan) entered with the compromised
name and
flag of "Chinese
Taipei" ("Κινεζικη
Ταϊπεϊ") under Τ so that they did not enter together with
conflicting People's Republic of China (commonly known as China), which entered as the "People's Republic of
China" ("Λαϊκή Δημοκρατία της
Κίνας") under Κ. The
Republic of the Congo entered as just "
Congo" (
Κονγκό), while the
Democratic Republic of the Congo entered with its full name, "Λαϊκή
Δημοκρατία του Κονγκό" under Δ. The
British Virgin Islands ("
Βρετανικές Παρθένοι Νήσοι") entered under Β while the
United States Virgin Islands entered as simply the "
Virgin Islands" ("
Παρθένοι Νήσοι"), under Π. Additionally,
Ivory Coast, the United States,
Iran,
Laos,
Libya, Russia,
Syria and Hong Kong all entered under their formal names, respectively "
Côte d'Ivoire", the "
United States of America", "Islamic Republic of
Iran", "
Lao People's Democratic Republic", "
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya", "
Russian Federation", "
Syrian Arab Republic" and "
Hong Kong, China". Notable flag bearers in the opening ceremony featured the following athletes: triple Grand Slam champion and tennis player
Roger Federer (Switzerland), NBA basketball player
Yao Ming (People's Republic of China), six-time Olympians and Star sailors
Colin Beashel (Australia) and
Torben Grael (Brazil), triple Olympic weightlifting champion
Pyrros Dimas (Greece), show jumper
Ludger Beerbaum (Germany), two-time Olympic sprint freestyle champion
Alexander Popov (Russia), four-time rowing champion
Elisabeta Lipă (Romania), decathlon champion
Erki Nool (Estonia), and rings gymnast
Jury Chechi (Italy). ==List==