President of Finland Tarja Halonen Parade of Nations In order to prepare for the entry of the athletes to the stadium, the giant pool of water that had been constructed on the floor of the stadium had to first be drained. 2,162,000 liters of water were drained from the stadium in a time period of three minutes, providing a dry, hard surface for the athletes to march and gather on. Typically, Greece leads the Parade of Nations in any Olympics, with the host nation entering the stadium last. However, since Greece was the host nation, they went last, sending only their flag with the weightlifter Pyrros Dimas as the flag bearer into the stadium at the beginning of the parade, and the athletes themselves at the end of it. The debut position was given to Saint Lucia (Αγία Λουκία in Greek), who led the Parade of Nations into the stadium. As the nations entered in Greek alphabetical order, Zimbabwe—which has usually been the penultimate nation, followed only by the host country—appeared in the middle of the parade. Countries such as the United States and Switzerland, which are usually at the rear of the pack, were granted earlier entries as well due to their position in the Greek alphabet. The entrances of Afghanistan and Iraq were emotional highpoints of the parade. The nation of Kiribati made its debut Olympic appearance at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and East Timor marched under its own flag for the first time. Serbia and Montenegro appeared at the Olympics under the nation's new name for the first and only time since the country was officially renamed in 2003, and prior to the union's dissolution in 2006 (just before the 2008 Summer Olympics); it had previously been known as Yugoslavia. Due to the unpopularity of the American-led invasion of Iraq among Greeks, it had been expected by the media that audience members would protest against the war during the entrance of the American delegation into the stadium by booing; however, the Americans did receive a warm welcome, much to the pleasant surprise of US news anchors covering the event as well as NBC Sports anchor Bob Costas. Apart from Greece, the Greek crowd reserved some of their loudest cheers for their fellow Greeks from Cyprus, Australia, home to many Greeks and site of the previous Summer Olympics and Mediterranean countries such as France and Italy, as well