The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are officially underway following the Opening Ceremonies, which featured a number of swimmers carrying the flags for their respective countries.
Unlike in years past, all flag barriers had to arrive in Tokyo 48 hours prior to the start of the Opening Ceremonies to go through the COVID-19 Testing Protocols. As a result of this, many countries elected to utilize flag bearers that will be competing in earlier events at the Games.
Swimming is one of the first sports that will be occurring at the Games, with events scheduled to be held from July 24 until August 1. In total, 86 swimmers participate in the ceremonies as flag bearers, a historic number of participants. This made swimming the best-represented sport in the ceremonies, ahead of athletics (69), judo (30), and boxing (29).
There were also several other aquatic sports represented in the ceremonies, including diving (3 athletes) and water polo (2 athletes).
Several notable swimmers participated in ceremonies as their country’s flag bearer, including Chad le Clos, Mireia Belmonte, Cate Campbell, and Laszlo Cseh. In total, 86 swimmers carried the flag for their country.
Full List of Aquatic Flag Bearers
- Swimming
- Olympic Refugee Team – Yursa Mardini
- Iceland – Snaefridur Sol Jorunbardittir/Anton Mckee
- Algeria – Anel Melih
- Aruba – Allyson Ponson / Mikel Schreuders
- Armenia – Varsenik Mancharyan
- Antigua – Samatha Roberts
- Uganda – Kirabo Namutebi
- British Virgin Islands – Elinah Phillip
- Swaziland – Robyn Young
- El Salvador – Celina Marquez
- Australia – Cate Campbell
- Cape Verde – Jayla Pina
- Gabon – Aya Girard de Langlade Mpali
- Cambodia – Bunpichmorkat Kheun
- Kuwait – Lara Dashti
- Cook Islands – Kirsten Andrea Fisher-Marsters / Wesley Tikiariki Roberts
- Grenada – Kimberly Ince / Delron Felix
- Kyrgyzstan – Denis Petrashov
- Cayman Islands – Jillian Crooks / Brent Frasier
- Guyana – Andrew Fowler
- Oman – Issa Samir Hamed Al Adawi
- Ethiopia – Abdelmalik Muktar
- Eritrea – Ghirmai Efrem
- Israel – Yakov Toumarkin
- UAE – Yousuf Almatrooshi
- Zambia – Tilka Paljk
- San Marino – Arianna Valloni
- Zimbabwe – Donata Katai
- Spain – Mireia Belmonte
- Sudan – Abobakr Abass
- Suriname – Renzo Tjon-A-Joe
- Senegal – Jeanne Boutbien
- Solomon Islands -Edgar Richardson Iro
- South Korea – Sunwoo Hwang
- Central African Republic – Chloe Sauvourel
- Turkey – Merve Tuncel / Berke Saka
- Turkmenistan – Merdan Atayev
- Nigeria – Roukaya Moussa Mahamane
- Nepal – Gaurika Singh / Alexander Shah
- Norway – Tomoe Hvas
- Brunei – Noor Yusuf Abdulla
- Bahamas – Joanna Evans
- Palau – Osisang Chilton
- Barbados – Danielle Titus/ Alex Sobers
- Palestine – Dania Nour
- Timor-Leste – Imelda Ximenes Belo
- Burkina-Faso – Angelika Ouedraogo
- American Samoa Tilali Scanlan
- U.S. Virgin Islands Natalia Jean Kuipers/ Adriel Sanes
- Benin – Nafissath Radji
- Bolivia – Karen Torrez /Gabriel Castillo
- Marshall Islands – Colleen Furgeson / Phillip Kinono
- Malawi Jessica Makwenda
- Federated States of Micronesia – Taeyanna Adams
- Liechtenstein – Julia Hassler
- Rwanda – Alphonsine Agahozo
- Hungary – Laszlo Cseh
- Bangladesh – Md Ariful Islam
- Fiji – Taichi Vakasama
- Finland -Ari-Pekka Liukkonen
- Bhutan – Sangay Tenzin
- Bulgaria – Josif Miladinov
- Brunei Muhammad Isa Ahmad
- Burundi – Belly-Cresus Ganira
- Vietnam – Huy Hoang Nguyen
- Belarus – Mikita Tsmyh
- Poland – Pawel Korzeniowski
- Honduras – Julio Horrego
- Malta – Andrew Chetcuti
- South Africa – Chad le Clos
- Maldives – Mubal Azzam Ibrahim
- Laos – Santisouk Inthavong
- Lithuania – Giedrius Titenis
- Romania – Robert Glinta
- Luxembourg – Raphael Stacchiotti
- Diving
- Germany – Patrick Hausding
- Norway – Anne Tuxen
- Mexico – Rommel Pacheco Marrufo
- Water Polo
- Montenegro – Drasko Brguljan
- Serbia – Filip Filipovic
- Artistic Swimming
- none
Can you put the actual country name?
Done
Why so many this year?
The article notes that swimming is one of the first events to be contested, and athletes from other sports may have not yet arrived, or did not arrive 48 hours in advance to go through Covid testing protocols.
I know that a number of the swimmers are actually US citizens as well, and are lucky enough to have dual citizenship, or be able to represent other countries. Swimming does not require “developing countries” to meet Olympic standards, so there are more swimmers representing those countries.