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| 1988 Summer Olympics |
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During the Parade of Nations portion of the1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, athletes from each country participating in the Olympics paraded in the arena, preceded by their flag. The flag was borne by a sportsperson from that country chosen either by theNational Olympic Committee or by the athletes themselves to represent their country.
As the nation of thefirst modernOlympic Games,Greece entered the stadium first; whereas, the host nationSouth Korea marched last. Other countries entered in alphabetical order in the language of the host country (Korean), according with tradition andIOC guidelines. Thecollation method used is based on the names as written inHangul, a traditional Korean alphabet.[1]
Whilst most countries entered under theirshort names, a few entered under more formal or alternative names, mostly due to political and naming disputes. TheRepublic of China (commonly known as Taiwan) entered with the compromisedname andflag of "ChineseTaipei" ("차이니스타이페이") under 타ta, while theconflictingPeople's Republic of China (commonly known as China) entered as "중화인민공화국" under 중.
Among the nations with Korean names starting with 이i, several reorderings occurred due the geopolitics. Hangul alphabetic order would have dictatedIraq → Iran → Israel → Egypt → Italy → India → Indonesia → Japan. As its protocol name at the IOC is Islamic Republic of Iran,the iranian delegation was moved three spaces later in the parade while Israel was moved five spaces later and was (an additional two spaces past Iran), changing the parade order intoIraq → Egypt → Italy → India → Iran → Indonesia → Japan → Israel.
160 National Olympic Committees (NOC)s entered with their delegations on the Olympic Stadium.[2][3] Eight NOCs made their Olympic debut:Aruba,American Samoa,Brunei,Cook Islands,Maldives,Vanuatu,Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, andSouth Yemen.North Korea and its allyCuba boycotted the games for the second consecutive time, whileEthiopia,Albania and theSeychelles did not respond to the invitations sent by theIOC,[4] allegedly in solidarity with North Korea.[5]Madagascar did not participate due to financial considerations,Nicaragua did not participate due to the ongoingcivil war, andSouth Africa was excluded since 1964 due to itsapartheid policies.[6][5]
Notable flag bearers in the opening ceremony featured the following athletes: seven-time Olympian and Star sailorHubert Raudaschl (Austria); defending Olympic championsEvelyn Ashford (United States) in the women's 100-metre dash;[7]Jouko Salomaki (Finland) andVasile Andrei (Romania) in Greco-Roman wrestling;Ernesto Canto (Mexico) in race walking;Agneta Andersson (Sweden) in the women's kayak sprinting;Matija Ljubek in the men's canoe sprinting; and six-time OlympianReiner Klimke (Federal Republic of Germany), who led the West German team to a gold-medal victory in the equestrian dressage; synchronized swimmersMikako Kotani (Japan) andCarolyn Waldo (Canada), who eventually topped the podium in both the solo and duet routines; eight-time Olympian and Star sailorDurward Knowles (the Bahamas); eventual gold medalistsUlf Timmermann (German Democratic Republic) in the men's shot put andAleksandr Karelin (Soviet Union) in the super heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestling; five-time track sprinter and Moscow 1980 championPietro Mennea (Italy); long-distance runnerGrete Andersen-Waitz (Norway), who bagged a silver medal in the inaugural women's marathon four years earlier; and world-number-three tennis playerGabriela Sabatini (Argentina) in the women's singles.[8]
The following is a list of each participating National Olympic Committee enter. The names are given in their official designations by the IOC protocol guides.
Some differences occurred between the official placard displays and the official announcements:
 Olympic Games national flag bearers by year | |
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| Summer Olympics | |
| Winter Olympics | |
| Intercalated Games | |
| Summer Youth Olympics | |
| Winter Youth Olympics | |
