Why the Parade of Nations Is in a Different Order at the 2022 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

The 2022 Winter Olympics have officially begun!

On Friday morning, the sporting event kicked off with its Opening Ceremony, symbolizing the start of the new Games and featuring the eventual lighting of the Olympic cauldron.

The Parade of Nations is always a highly-anticipated aspect of the Ceremony and serves as a formal introduction to the Games, welcoming countries to the Olympics. During the Parade, athletes march together and wave the flags of their respective countries.

Taking place at the National Stadium in Beijing, the Parade of Nations highlights each competing nation, though this year was not organized in the traditional alphabetical order that has been used in Olympic Games of years past.

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The 2022 parade instead follows the Chinese writing system and is ordered by the number of strokes within the first character of the nation's Chinese name, from lowest to highest.

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Despite the differing order in this year's Games, Greece was still the first nation to be featured due to a tradition that has been followed since the Olympics' early beginnings.

The country is always the first team to march during the Parade of Nations at every Olympics due to its "distinction for its founding role in the first modern Games," per NBC. Greece held the first modern Olympics that took place in Athens in 1896, as well as the original Olympics thousands of years ago.

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As other nations follow behind Greece, the host country — which is China — then goes last. This year, the United States landed 56th out of the 90 teams that are participating in the parade.

In a new tradition, which the New York Times reported began in Tokyo during the 2020 Summer Olympics last year, countries that will host the next Games then shift to the end of the parade, which is why Italy, the host of the 2026 Winter Games, will go second to last, just before China.

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An inspirational film called "I Dare You," narrated by actor and former WWE superstar Dwayne Johnson, aired at the start of NBC's coverage of the ceremony.

"It's my honor to once again be asked to participate in the presentation of the Opening Ceremony. And on behalf of our country, I will proudly introduce our U.S. Olympians to the world as they take that first step of defining their legacy," Johnson, 49, said in a statement prior to the event.

To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visit TeamUSA.org. Watch the Winter Olympics, beginning Feb 3, and the Paralympics, beginning March 4, on NBC.