By: Melissa S. Wollering

Part three in this three-part series will help you earn a Gold Medal in Flag Identification during Vancouver’s Opening Ceremonies Friday.  On Monday, we gave you dozens of reasons to watch by telling you about all of the Olympic athletes from the Midwest.  Yesterday, we helped you navigate the channels and figure out when to watch. Welcome to TSB’s Guide to the Vancouver Olympics!

In addition to giving you a small glimpse of the flags of all 82 countries participating in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, we did a little research on countries we’ve never heard of. Now when you hear and see the flags of Azerbaijan, Estonia or Kyrgyzstan you’ll know the announcers weren’t just sneezing on-air. We’ll also make sure you don’t mistake Slovakia for Slovenia or Tajikistan for Uzbekistan.

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Azerbaijan first participated at the Olympic Games as an independent nation in 1994 and used to be part of the Soviet Union.  If you want to refer to the people of this country, they are Azerbaijani. Azerbaijani athletes have won a total of sixteen medals at the Summer Olympic Games, in wrestling, shooting, boxing and judo. The nation has not won any medals at the Winter Olympic Games.

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