2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics: Figure skaters as flag bearers

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From: http://www.lifeskate.com






Did you see Alexandra "Sasha" Zaretsky, Julia Sebestyen, Kevin van der Perren and Stephane Lambiel (see right) carry their country's flag at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics? Sasha and Roman Zaretsky will be competing in ice dance and Julia, Song Chol, Kevin and Stephane will be competing in singles. That must have been pretty exciting for them! I thought the ceremony was wonderful yet tinged with somberness, with the death of Georgian luger Norad Kumaritashvili just a few hours previously during a practice run. The Georgian delegation wore black armbands and scarves in honor of him.

So who were all the athletes leading their country's delegation during the Parade of Nations? The complete list is below and the host country, Canada, filed in last led by speedskater Clara Hughes.



Sasha Zaretsky



Julia Sebestyen



Kevin van der Perren

Click to view

* Greece: Athanassios Tsakiris (Biathlon)

* Albania: Erjon Tola (Alpine Skiing)

* Algeria: Meidhi Khelifi (Cross-Country)

* Andorra: Lluis Marin (Snowboard)

* Argentina: Cristian Simari Birkner (Alpine Skiing)

* Armenia: Arsen Nersisyan (Alpine Skiing)

* Australia: Torah Bright (Snowboard)

* Austria: Andreas Linger (Luge)

* Azerbaijan: Fuat Guliyev (Official-Alpine Skiing)

* Belarus: Oleg Antonenko (Hockey)

* Belgium: Kevin van der Perren (Figure skating - mens singles)

* Bermuda: Tucker Murphy (Cross-Country)

* Bosnia and Herzegovina: Zana Novakovic (Alpine Skiing)

* Brazil: Isabel Clark (Snowboard)

* Bulgaria: Alexandra Jekova (Snowboard)

* Cayman Islands: Dow Travers (Alpine Skiing)

* Chile: Jorge Mandru (Alpine Skiing)

* China: Xiaopeng Han (Freestyle Skiing)

* Colombia: Cynthia Denzler (Alpine Skiing)

* Croatia: Jakov Fak (Biathlon)

* Cyprus: Christopher Papamichalopoulos (Alpine Skiing)

* Czech Republic: Jaromir Jagr (Hockey)

* North Korea: Song Chol Ri (Figure skating - mens singles)

* Denmark: Sophie Fjellvang-Soelling (Ski Cross)

* Estonia: Roland Lessing (Biathlon)

* Ethiopia: Robel Teklemariam Zemichael (Cross-Country)

* Finland: Ville Peltonen (Hockey)

* Macedonia: Antonio Ristevski (Alpine Skiing)

* France: Vincent DeFrasne (Biathlon)

* Georgia: Iason Abramashvili (Alpine Skiing)

* Germany: Andre Lange (Bobsleigh)

* Ghana: Kwame Nkrumajacheampong (Alpine Skiing)

* Great Britain: Shelley Rudman (Skeleton)

* Hong Kong: Yueshuang Han (Short Track)

* Hungary: Julia Sebestyen (Figure Skating - ladies singles)

* Iceland: Bjoergvin Bjoergvinsson (Alpine Skiing)

* India: Shiva Keshavan (Luge)

* Iran: Marjan Kalhor (Alpine Skiing)

* Ireland: Aofie Hoey (Bobsleigh)

* Israel: Alexandra Zaretsky (Figure skating - ice dance)

* Italy: Giorgio Di Centa (Cross-Country)

* Jamaica: Errol Kerr (Freestyle Skiing)

* Japan: Tomomi Okazaki (Speed skating)

* Kazakhstan: Dias Keneshev (Biathlon)

* South Korea: Kwang-Bae Kang (Bobsleigh)

* Kyrgyzstan: Dmitry Trelevski (Alpine Skiing)

* Latvia: Martins Dukurs (Skeleton)

* Lebanon: Chirine Njeim (Alpine Skiing)

* Liechtenstein: Richard Wunder (Bobsleigh)

* Lithuania: Irina Terentjeva (Cross-Country)

* Morocco: Samir Azzimani (Alpine Skiing)

* Mexico: Hubertus von Hohenlohe (Alpine Skiing)

* Moldova: Victor Pinzaru (Biathlon)

* Monaco: Alexandra Coletti (Alpine Skiing)

* Mongolia: Ochirsuren Erdene-Ochir (Cross-Country)

* Montenegro: Bojan Kosic (Alpine Skiing)

* Nepal: Dachhiri Sherpa (Cross-Country)

* Netherlands: Timothy Beck (Bobsleigh)

* New Zealand: Juliane Bray (Snowboard)

* Norway: Tommy Jakobsen (Hockey)

* Pakistan: Muhammad Abbas (Alpine Skiing)

* Peru: Roberto Carcelen (Cross-Country)

* Poland: Konrad Niedzwiedzki (Speed skating)

* Portugal: Danny Silva (Cross-Country)

* Romania: Eva Tofalvi (Biathlon)

* Russia: Alexey Morozov (Hockey)

* San Marino: Marino Cardelli (Alpine Skiing)

* Senegal: Leyti Seck (Alpine Skiing)

* Serbia: Jelena Lolovic (Alpine Skiing)

* Slovakia: Zigmund Palffy (Hockey)

* Slovenia: Tina Maze (Alpine Skiing)

* South Africa: Oliver Kraas (Cross-Country)

* Spain: Queralt Castellet (Snowboard)

* Sweden: Peter Forsberg (Hockey)

* Switzerland: Stephane Lambiel (Figure skating - mens singles)

* Chinese Taipei: Chih-Hung Ma (Luge)

* Tajikistan: Alisher Kudratov (Official-Alpine Skiing)

* Turkey: Kelime Cetinkaya (Cross-Country)

* Ukraine: Lilia Ludan (Luge)

* USA: Mark Grimmette (Luge)

* Uzbekistan: Oleg Shamaev (Alpine Skiing)

* Canada: Clara Hughes (Speed skating)

http://www.lifeskate.com (c)

photos from: http://www.daylife.com, http://www.gettyimages.com