At the 2012 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations of the 2012 London Olympics, athletes and officials from each participating country paraded into the Olympic Stadium preceded by their national flag to the sound of iconic British modern music. Each flag bearer was chosen by each nation's National Olympic Committee or by the delegation of athletes.

Parade order By tradition and IOC guidelines, Greece entered first, as the nation of origin of the ancient and the host of the 1896 Summer Olympics modern Olympic Games. The host nation Great Britain (as the United Kingdom is recognised at the Games) brought up the end of the procession. The other nations followed Greece in alphabetical order by name in the language of the host country (English) except for a few instances. As each national delegation entered accompanied by music, the national name was announced in French and English (the official languages of the Olympics).

National name exceptions included shortened, more formal or alternative names, sometimes due to political or naming disputes. The then called Republic of Macedonia entered using part of its UN recognised name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" 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" under T 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" under C. The Republic of the Congo entered as just "Congo" while the Democratic Republic of the Congo entered with its full name. Similarly South Korea entered as "Republic of Korea" under K while North Korea entered as "Democratic People's Republic of Korea". The British Virgin Islands entered under B while the United States Virgin Islands entered as simply the "Virgin Islands", under V. Iran, Micronesia, Moldova, Laos, Brunei and the United States all entered under their formal names, respectively "Islamic Republic of Iran", "Federated States of Micronesia", "Republic of Moldova", "Lao People's Democratic Republic", "Brunei Darussalam" and "United States of America". For the first time in many years, Libyan athletes marched as "Libya", and not "Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" as Libya was known during the reign of Muammar Gaddafi.

Parade

Each delegation was led by a flagbearer (listed below), accompanied by a child volunteer carrying a copper petal (camera-left) and a young lady carrying a sign with the country's English name (camera-right). The copper petal was engraved with the name of the nation and would later be used to build the cauldron for the Olympic flame.205 teams were in the parade but only 204 petals were used in the cauldron: that of the Independent Olympic Athletes were not used in the cauldron. The volunteer carrying the sign wore a dress constructed with fabric imprinted with images of Olympic volunteers, including those who had not been chosen.NBC, 2012 London Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies, airdate: 27 July 2012 Each nation's flag was planted as it arrived at the model of Glastonbury Tor.

Netherlands Antilles was ineligible to participate independently in the parade, as its National Olympic Committee was unrecognised by the IOC due to the 2010 dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. Team Dutch Antilleans paraded by default under the Olympic flag, together with a South Sudanese runner whose newly independent country did not yet have an Olympic committee.Pilon, Mary. South Sudanese Runner to Compete Without a Team . The New York Times. 21 July 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012.

Notable were the debut female Olympic athletes from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei.The Olympics is a symbolic victory for Saudi Arabian women, but let’s not get carried away . New Statesman. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2012.

The Team India entered the stadium jointly led by a woman dressed in a red top and blue trousers, who was not part of its team. In India this incident received media attention, but London officials downplayed concerns saying that she was Madhura Nagendra, a volunteer who had been security screened. Some media outlets later identified her as Madhura Honey, a graduate of Communications and Media Studies from Christ College in Bangalore. The Indian team's acting chef-de-mission Muralidharan Raja filed a protest with organisers.

Countries and flagbearers 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, or flag bearer's sport. Names are given in the form officially designated by the IOC. OrderCountryFlag bearerSport 1 Taekwondo 2 Taekwondo 3 Weightlifting 4 Boxing 5 Swimming 6 Shooting 7 Judo 8 Athletics 9 Field hockey 10 Taekwondo 11 Swimming 12 Basketball 13 Swimming 14 Judo 15 Athletics 16 Shooting 17 Swimming 18 Athletics 19 Tennis 20 Athletics 21 Athletics 22 Judo 23 Sailing 24 Archery 25 Swimming 26 Judo 27 Athletics 28 Equestrian 29 Athletics 30 Athletics 31 Gymnastics 32 Judo 33 Athletics 34 Taekwondo 35 Wrestling 36 Triathlon 37 Judo 38 Athletics 39 Taekwondo 40 Judo 41 Archery 42 Basketball 43 Cycling 44 Athletics 45 Athletics 46 Sailing 47 Athletics 48 Athletics 49 Handball 50 Wrestling 51 Tennis 52 Badminton 53 Athletics 54 Athletics 55 Canoeing 56 Athletics 57 Athletics 58 Taekwondo 59 Canoeing 60 Judo 61 Cycling 62 Athletics 63 Athletics 64 Athletics 65 Swimming 66 Judo 67 Swimming 68 Swimming 69 Fencing 70 Athletics 71 Athletics 72 Shooting 73 Field hockey 74 Boxing 75 Athletics 76 Wrestling 77 Sailing 78 Judo 79 Wrestling 80 Athletics 81 Judo 82 Athletics 83 Cycling 84 Water polo 85 Athletics 86 LOCOG/Games Maker 87 Wrestling 88 Swimming 89 Boxing 90 Athletics 91 Boxing 92 Sailing 93 Fencing 94 Athletics 95 Wrestling 96 Taekwondo 97 Wrestling 98 Swimming 99 Weightlifting 100 Handball 101 Shooting 102 Judo 103 Athletics 104 Beach volleyball 105 Taekwondo 106 Athletics 107 Athletics 108 Swimming 109 Tennis 110 Athletics 111 Judo 112 Judo 113 Athletics 114 Diving 115 Badminton 116 Athletics 117 Shooting 118 Athletics 119 Athletics 120 Beach volleyball 121 Taekwondo 122 Weightlifting 123 Archery 124 Swimming 125 Athletics 126 Judo 127 Taekwondo 128 Athletics 129 Athletics 130 Shooting 131 Weightlifting 132 Swimming 133 Sailing 134 Athletics 135 Boxing 136 Boxing 137 Wrestling 138 Canoeing 139 Shooting 140 Field hockey 141 Athletics 142 Judo 143 Athletics 144 Athletics 145 Swimming 146 Athletics 147 Weightlifting 148 Tennis 149 Judo 150 Athletics 151 Shooting 152 Tennis 153 Tennis 154 Cycling 155 Athletics 156 Athletics 157 Athletics 158 Weightlifting 159 Shooting 160 Athletics 161 Athletics 162 Judo 163 Tennis 164 Judo 165 Athletics 166 Table tennis 167 Shooting 168 Canoeing 169 Weightlifting 170 Athletics 171 Athletics 172 Basketball 173 Badminton 174 Athletics 175 Swimming 176 Swimming 177 Equestrian 178 Tennis 179 Athletics 180 Weightlifting 181 Boxing 182 Athletics 183 Swimming 184 Athletics 185 Canoeing 186 Swimming 187 Athletics 188 Handball 189 Volleyball 190 Boxing 191 Athletics 192 Swimming 193 Judo 194 Shooting 195 Fencing 196 Rowing 197 Boxing 198 Table tennis 199 Table tennis 200 Fencing 201 Athletics 202 Taekwondo 203 Athletics 204 Swimming 205 Cycling Notes

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