DNA Explainer: India to enter 21st at Tokyo Olympics 2020 opening ceremony, know why

Tokyo Olympics 2020: Today is the official opening of the much-awaited 32nd Olympic Games. India is fielding more than 120 athletes at the Tokyo Olympics. Last known, 28 athletes and six officials of the Indian contingent are to join at the opening ceremony. 

The Olympics Games will see the participation of around 11,000 athletes from 205 countries. They will be competing for 339 gold medals across 33 sports. The Tokyo Olympics 2020 will see India's largest contingent to feature at the mega sporting event ever. 

At the opening ceremony, India will be 21st out of 205 contingents in the Parade of Nations. The United Arab Emirates will be among the first 10 entrants, while Australia and Austria will enter after Ukraine and Uruguay. So how is the order decided as to who will enter at which spot during the opening ceremony? 

How is the order decided?

India will be the 21st on the list of the contingent during the March past, which has been decided according to the Japanese alphabetical order.

The teams enter the stadium in alphabetical order according to the language selected by the organising committee, generally the dominant language of the host city.

The announcers first call out a country's name in French and English - the official languages for the Games according to Rule 23 of the Olympic Charter and then the chosen language.

As an exception, the Parade of Nations always begins with Greece, the host of the ancient Olympics and the first modern one.

The host nation also always closes out the marching ceremony.

This year, in order to promote future editions, the IOC wanted the next two Olympic hosts to precede Japan.

So, the order at the end of the ceremony will be 2028 hosts United States, 2024 hosts France and Team Japan.

In another change to the traditional marching order, the Refugee Olympic Team will follow Greece at number two.

What will be the order in Tokyo Olympics?

The teams will enter according to their names in Gojuon - Japan's fifty-sound phonetic order, which is also used in dictionaries.

India (Indo in Japanese transliteration) will march in at No 21, with boxer Mary Kom and men's hockey captain Manpreet Singh as flag-bearers.

The Russian contingent will compete under the acronym ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) and will be third to enter after Greece and the Refugee Olympic Team (EOR).

Russia has been disallowed to use the country's name, flag, and anthem due to doping-related sanctions, 

According to the Japanese alphabetical order, UAE (Arabu Shuchokoku Renpo) will come before Algeria (Arujeria).

Australia (Osutoraria) and Austria (Osutoria) will be No 37 and 38, respectively, coming after nations such as Uzbekistan (Uzubekisutan) and Uruguay (Uruguai).

In the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo, the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, and the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano also athletes marched according to Japanese alphabetical order.