Athletes from 205 countries participating in the Olympics — fewer than there would be if not for the pandemic — paraded at the Opening Ceremony to officially kick off the Tokyo Games on Friday night local time.
But for English speakers tuning in expecting a predictable alphabetical order, this particular procession of nations seemed incongruous. The explanation, of course, has to do with the host country — along with a few other factors.
For inventing the Olympics thousands of years ago and for hosting the first modern Games in 1896, Greece gets the honor of going first in every Opening Ceremony.