How the order of the Parade of Nations is determined at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

• The Parade of Nations is often the highlight of the Olympic opening ceremony.
• At most Olympic ceremonies the nations emerge in alphabetical order in the host nation's language.

The Parade of Nations is often the big highlight of the Olympic opening ceremony.

At Beijing 2022, the order the competing nations walk out in will be different than past games.

Whereas past parades have been ordered alphabetically by the host nation's alphabet, in Beijing nations will walk out in order of the number of strokes in the first character of their name in written Chinese.

Greece always goes first, as the first host of the modern Olympic games, and the host nation goes last.

Turkey was the second nation to walk out, with three strokes in their first character. The more strokes in the first letter, the later the nation will emerge. South Korea, for instance, has 17 strokes in the first character of its Chinese name.

According to Newsweek, there are 91 countries competing at Beijing. The US is 56th in the order.