User:Callyn Radford/sandbox

During the Parade of Nations portion of the 1968 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, athletes from each country participating in the Olympics paraded in the arena, preceded by their flag. The flag was borne by a sportsperson from that country chosen either by the National Olympic Committee or by the athletes themselves to represent their country. The order starts from Greece and ends at Mexico as Greece hosted the I Games of the Olympiad back in 1896. The order was in Spanish, the official language of Mexico. Twelve nations debuted in the olympics, namely Barbados as its first time being independent in the Olympics, British Honduras (Now Belize), Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (as Congo-Kinshasa), El Salvador, East Germany and West Germany as their first time being separate, Guinea, Honduras, Kuwait, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Sierra Leone, and the United States Virgin Islands. Singapore returned as an independent country as it was part of the Malaysian team in 1964. Suriname and Libya returned with athletes as in 1960, and 1964, they took part in the opening ceremonies but their athletes withdrew later. The People's Republic of China last competed in 1952 but they did not compete due to the dispute between the Republic of China over the right to represent China. South Vietnam competed as Vietnam, while the United States Virgin Islands competed as the Virgin Islands (Some of the participants have no confirmed information for their flag bearers.)