During the 2018 Winter Paralympics Parade of Nations at the

2018 Winter Paralympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Paralympics took place at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium in Pyeongchang, South Korea on March 9, 2018. at 20:00 KST Preparations The site of the opening ceremony, Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, was built s ...

, beginning at 20:00 KST (

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time wit ...

) on 9 March 2018, athletes bearing the flags of their respective nations led their national delegations as they paraded into the

Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium The Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium () was a temporary venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea. The stadium was demolished after the Games. Backgrou ...

in the host city of Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Background

All teams entered in alphabetical order based on the names of countries in the

Korean language Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...

, except host nation

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

, marched last. The collation method used is based on the names as written in

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

, 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 (IPC) 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 Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

n 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. After a Russian state-sponsored doping program was exposed following the

2014 Winter Paralympics The 2014 Winter Paralympics (russian: Зимние Паралимпийские игры 2014, Zimniye Paralimpiyskiye igry 2014), the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were a ...

, the

Russian Paralympic Committee The Russian Paralympic Committee (russian: Паралимпийский комитет России) is the National Paralympic Committee representing Russia. History The Russian Paralympic Committee was founded in 1996. On 7 August 2016, i ...

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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, 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 Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, North Korea and

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

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.

References

{{Portal bar, Lists, Sports, South Korea

Parade of Nations The Olympic Games ceremonies of the Ancient Olympic Games were an integral part of these Games; the modern Olympic games have opening, closing, and medal ceremonies. Some of the elements of the modern ceremonies date back to the Ancient Games from ...

Lists of Paralympic flag bearers Parades in South Korea