The Parade of Nations Trivia Quiz

Greece always enters first during the Parade of Nations to honor the country for founding the original ancient Olympic Games. When Athens hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics, a single athlete from Greece entered first with the flag and the remainder of the Greek team entered last as is tradition for the host country to do.

The Refugee Olympic Team debuted at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. On that occasion, the Refugee Olympic Team walked in second to last, just before the host country. Since 2020, however, the team has entered second after Greece because the protocol was changed to place future host nations just before the current host.

After Greece and the Refugee Olympic Team, all the nations that are not the current or future hosts enter alphabetically in the language of the host nation. Because this hypothetical Olympics takes place in the United States, Austria would enter early on. Sometimes host nations will use other methods to sort the countries because their language might not have a traditional alphabetical order. For instance, China uses the number of strokes it takes to write each nation's name in Simplified Chinese.

The British Virgin Islands walk in under that name. Despite being part of the UK, the British Virgin Islands has it own Olympic committee and thus its own team. It is the U.S. Virgin Islands that walk in during the Parade of Nations under the name "Virgin Island".

North Korea walks in under its official name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, under D. There was a time, during the so-called Sunshine Era, where North Korea and South Korea walked in together under the name Korea. That ended in 2004 and the two nations have walked in separately ever since, with the exception of the 2018 Winter Olympics when North Korea joined the host nation South Korea by walk in together last.

Kenya would walk into the ceremony in the same position it always does. Kenya does not have any unusual or special circumstances surrounding it or its name at the Olympic Games.

South Korea walks in, in English-speaking countries, under the letter K for Korea, not S for South Korea. The country typically goes by its official name of the Republic of Korea when competing at the Olympics, although it is usually called South Korea by commentators to avoid confusion with North Korea and its official name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Although Norway, in this hypothetical scenario, is a named future host of the Winter Olympics, that does not factor in during the Parade of Nations during the Summer Olympics. So Norway would march in in the same spot it always would, not at the end like the selected future Summer Olympic host nations would.

Like Norway, Switzerland is also a future host of the Winter Olympics. However also like Norway, this does not factor in for the Parade of Nations at the Summer Olympics. Switzerland would walk in the same position it normally would.

Because of disagreements with China, Taiwan competes at the Olympics under the name Chinese Taipei. It walks in during the Parade of Nations under T for Taipei (or Taiwan), not C for Chinese Taipei. Previously, Chinese Taipei did compete under the name Taiwan in 1964 and 1968.

Although named East Timor and commonly called that name by English speakers, East Timor walks into the Parade of Nations under T because its official name is the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. Despite this, the nation is often called East Timor by commentators and officials during the Olympics.

Zambia has no special rules or unusual circumstances surrounding its name or the Parade of Nations. In English-speaking nations (and many of the commonly used host nation languages) Zambia is near the very end of the alphabetical list, typically only before Zimbabwe. Even in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing where the order was determined by the number of strokes in its Simplified Chinese name, Zambia walked in last except for the host nation.

Canada, as the host of the hypothetical Summer Olympics in eight years, would enter third from last in the Parade of Nations. This is a tradition that started at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo to highlight the future hosts and drum interest in those Games. The host of the next immediate Summer Olympics would walk in second to last.

Since Spain would be the host of the next Summer Olympics in this hypothetical scenario, Spain would enter second to last, just ahead of the United States.

As the host nation, the United States would enter last during the Parade of Nations. This has been an Olympic tradition since the 1928 Games in Amsterdam which also introduced the concept of Greece entering first and the ceremonial lighting of the Olympic cauldron.