Each country's team is preceded into the Olympic Stadium by an athlete or delegation representative bearing his or her country’s flag. The flagbearer for the United States Olympic Team is normally chosen by his or her fellow athletes or the respective team captains. The practice of carrying the nations’ flags first began at the Games of the IV Olympiad in 1908 in London.

The United States flagbearer at the 1908 London Games, Ralph Rose, failed to dip the Stars and Stripes as the Americans passed King Edward in the opening parade. Olympic lore has it that Rose’s teammate Martin Sheridan said, “This flag dips to no earthly king,” drawing the fury of an outraged crowd that had watched every other nation dip its flag in tribute to the British royals. In fact, the U.S. has never dipped its flag in recognition of the chief of state of the host nation, and Congress actually passed a law in 1942 that says the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing.

Moreover, the Olympic Charter now recommends flagbearers not dip their colors, and suggests instead that all delegations give an “eyes right” on command as they pass by the chief of state of the host nation.

What follows is a list of every U.S. flagbearer since Rose carried the flag in 1908.

1908 London -- Ralph Rose, Track and Field

1912 Stockholm -- George Bonhag, Track and Field

1920 Antwerp -- Pat McDonald, Track and Field

1924 Paris -- Pat McDonald, Track and Field

1928 Amsterdam -- L. Clarence “Bud” Houser, Track and Field

1932 Los Angeles -- F. Morgan Taylor, Track and Field

1936 Berlin -- Alfred Jochim, Gymnastics

1948 London -- Ralph Craig, Track and Field

1952 Helsinki -- Norman Armitage, Fencing

1956 Melbourne -- Norman Armitage, Fencing

1956 Stockholm -- Warren B. Wofford, Equestrian

1960 Rome -- Rafer Johnson, Track and Field

1964 Tokyo -- Parry O’Brien, Track and Field

1968 Mexico City -- Janice Lee Romary, Fencing

1972 Munich -- Olga Fikotova Connolly, Track and Field

1976 Montreal -- Gary Hall, Swimming

1984 Los Angeles -- Ed Burke, Track and Field

1988 Seoul -- Evelyn Ashford, Track and Field

1992 Barcelona -- Francie Larrieu Smith, Track and Field

1996 Atlanta -- Bruce Baumgartner, Wrestling

2000 Sydney -- Cliff Meidl, Flatwater Canoeing

2004 Athens -- Dawn Staley, Basketball

2008 Beijing -- Lopez Lomong, Track and Field

2012 London -- Mariel Zagunis, Fencing

2016 Rio -- Michael Phelps, Swimming

1936: Alfred Jochim, the first non-track athlete to serve as U.S. flagbearer, competed in his fourth and final Olympics at the age of 34. Although his best finish in Berlin was 52nd on rings, he had won a total of two silver medals in his three previous appearances. 

1952: Norman Armitage is one of two Americans to make seven Olympic teams (equestrian Mike Plumb made eight), although he competed only six times because the 1940 Games were canceled because of World War II. He won a bronze medal in team sabre in 1948.

1968: Janice Lee Romary became the first woman to carry the U.S. flag at an Opening Ceremony. She participated in her sixth and final Olympic Games in Mexico City, competing in the individual and team foil fencing events. Though she never won a medal, Romary came close with a fourth-place finish in the individual foil in 1952 and 1956.

2008: Born in Sudan, Lopez Lomong became a U.S. citizen in 2007 and qualified for 1500m race for the Beijing Games on July 6, 2008 —exactly one year to the day after he was sworn in as a citizen. Lomong was taken from his family by militia at age six and held captive for three weeks. He escaped to a refugee camp in Kenya, where he lived for 10 years among other “Lost Boys” of Sudan. He was living with a foster family in upstate New York in 2001, and eventually became an NCAA champion. In Beijing, he competed in the 1500m but did not advance past the semifinals.

2012: The daughter of Olympic rowers, Mariel Zagunis is the only American fencer with two Olympic gold medals — the first of which she won in 2004 to end a 100-year fencing gold medal drought for the U.S., and the second she won in 2008. The Beaverton, Oregon, native made her third Olympic appearance in London, where she finished fourth in the women's individual sabre.  

2016: American swimmer Michael Phelps won a total of six Olympic medals in Rio, five of them were gold. With a total of 28 medals (23 gold —the most of any athlete) in five Olympic appearances, Phelps is the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.