2022 Winter Paralympics Parade of Nations explained

During the Parade of Nations within the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony on March 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 Paralympic Committee or by the team of athletes themselves.

Parade order

Nations marched in the order of the host language, Simplified Chinese. China entered last as host, and Italy entered second-to-last as upcoming host.

As Chinese characters do not have an alphabetical order, they were sorted based on stroke count. Specifically:

• Characters with fewer strokes march earlier, so New Zealand (Chinese: 新西兰) marched before Mexico (Chinese: 墨西哥) because Chinese: [[wikt:新|新]] has 13 strokes and Chinese: [[wikt:墨|墨]] has 15 strokes.
• If the initial characters have the same number of strokes, then the stroke orders of the two characters are grouped in the order 橫竖撇捺折 (horizontal/vertical/left falling/right falling/fold). For example, Denmark (Chinese: 丹麦) marched before Brazil (Chinese: 巴西) because Chinese: [[wikt:丹|丹]] has four strokes in the order (3541), while Chinese: [[wikt:巴|巴]] has four strokes in the order (5215).
  • The second characters are not compared, even though Chinese: [[wikt:麦|麦]] has more strokes than Chinese: [[wikt:西|西]].
• While it is possible to have a pair of characters with the same stroke count and the same stroke order groups, this did not occur during the parade. If the initial characters are identical, the second characters of each nation are used, and so on.

Countries and flag bearers

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. The names are given in their official designations by the IPC, and the Chinese names follow their official designations by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Order	Nation	Chinese name	Pinyin	Flag bearer	Sport/Function
1		Chinese: 比利时			Alpine skiing	^[1] ^[2]
2		Chinese: 日本			Cross-country skiing	^[3]
3		Chinese: 丹麦		Games Volunteer		^[4]
4		Chinese: 乌克兰			Biathlon
5		Chinese: 巴西			Cross-country skiing
6		Chinese: 以色列		Games Volunteer
7		Chinese: 加拿大			Wheelchair curling	^[5] ^[6]
				Para ice hockey
8		Chinese: 西班牙			Snowboarding
9		Chinese: 列支敦士登			Alpine skiing
10		Chinese: 伊朗			Cross-country skiing
11		Chinese: 匈牙利			Alpine skiing
12		Chinese: 冰岛			Alpine skiing
13		Chinese: 安道尔		Games Volunteer
14		Chinese: 芬兰			Cross-country skiing
				Alpine skiing
15		Chinese: 克罗地亚			Snowboarding
16		Chinese: 希腊			Alpine skiing
				Snowboarding
17		Chinese: 阿根廷			Alpine skiing
18		Chinese: 阿塞拜疆			Cross-country skiing
19		Chinese: 拉脱维亚			Wheelchair curling
Poļina Rožkova
20		Chinese: 英国		Gregor Ewan	Wheelchair curling
Meggan Dawson-Farrell
21		Chinese: 罗马尼亚			Snowboarding
				Alpine skiing
22		Chinese: 法国			Biathlon Cross-country skiing
23		Chinese: 波兰			Alpine skiing
24		Chinese: 波多黎各			Alpine skiing
25		Chinese: 波黑			Alpine skiing
26		Chinese: 挪威			Wheelchair curling
				Cross-country skiing
27		Chinese: 哈萨克斯坦			Biathlon
28		Chinese: 美国			Alpine skiing	^[7] ^[8]
29		Chinese: 荷兰			Snowboarding	^[9]
Chris Vos
30		Chinese: 格鲁吉亚			Cross-country skiing
31		Chinese: 爱沙尼亚			Wheelchair curling
Mait Mätas
32		Chinese: 捷克			Para ice hockey
33		Chinese: 斯洛文尼亚			Alpine skiing
34		Chinese: 斯洛伐克			Alpine skiing
				Wheelchair curling
35		Chinese: 韩国			Wheelchair curling	^[10]
36		Chinese: 智利			Alpine skiing
37		Chinese: 奥地利			Alpine skiing
38		Chinese: 瑞士			Wheelchair curling
				Snowboarding
39		Chinese: 瑞典			Wheelchair curling
Kristina Ulander
40		Chinese: 蒙古			Cross-country skiing
41		Chinese: 新西兰		Games Volunteer
42		Chinese: 墨西哥			Alpine skiing
43		Chinese: 德国			Biathlon
				Alpine skiing
44		Chinese: 澳大利亚			Alpine skiing
Mitchell Gourley
45		Chinese: 意大利			Alpine skiing
align=center rowspan=2	46		Chinese: 中国			Biathlon	^[11]

Notes and References

1. News: 2022 Beijing Paralympics opening ceremony hosts Team USA, Ukraine. 5 March 2022. USA Today SPORT. 5 March 2022.
2. News: 4 March 2022 . Waarom de Antwerpse Linda Le Bon niet deelneemt aan de openingsceremonie . nl . Antwerps persbureau . 5 March 2022.
3. Web site: Japan's Paralympians vow to emulate Olympians' success in Beijing. 24 February 2022. The Japan Times. 4 March 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220304035250/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2022/02/24/paralympics/winter-paralympics/paralympics-team-launch-ceremony/. 4 March 2022. live.
4. Web site: Full list of flagbearers for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony. International Olympic Committee. 5 March 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220305132727/https://olympics.com/en/news/beijing-2022-winter-paralympics-opening-ceremony-flagbearers. 5 March 2022. live.
5. Web site: Curler Forrest, hockey player Westlake named Canada's flag-bearers for Paralympics opening ceremony. CBC Sports. 1 March 2022 . 13 April 2023.
6. News: Message of peace: Beijing 2022 Paralympics commence in shadow of war in Ukraine . 4 March 2022. CBC Sports. 4 March 2022.
7. Web site: Danelle Umstead And Tyler Carter Elected As Team USA's Opening Ceremony Flag Bearers . Team USA . 2 March 2022 . 13 April 2023.
8. News: Highlights from the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing. 4 March 2022. NPR. 4 March 2022.
9. News: Brennan. Eliott. 7 February 2022. Bunschoten and Vos named Paralympic flag bearers for The Netherlands. InsideTheGames.biz. 8 February 2022.
10. Web site: [패럴림픽] 대한민국 선수단 입장. 4 March 2022.
11. News: Chinese flag bearer at Winter Paralympics opening ceremony wins gold. 5 March 2022. CGTN. 5 March 2022.