THE CONTESTANTS

Meet the 163 competitors as they enter the Olympic Stadium during the Opening Ceremony, with colorful comments by our very special guests Cassandra Porto and Janet Sullivan...

AFGHANISTAN - BELIZE

BOLIVIA - CONGO

COSTA RICA - FERNANDO DE NORONHA

FIJI - HONDURAS

HONG KONG - LEBANON

LIBERIA - MONGOLIA

MONTENEGRO - PANAMA

PARAGUAY - SLOVENIA

SOMALIA - THAILAND

TIBET - VIETNAM

WALES - ZIMBABWE

- National contestants were chosen based on their achievements in the 5 Grand Slam pageants between 2004 and 2007. The candidate who achieved the best result for each country automatically became that country's representative in the 2008 Beauty Olympics;

- Countries which did not place at all among the semi-finalists of the 5 Grand Slam pageants between 2004 and 2007, had their representatives chosen by a jury designated by Global Beauties; those countries will have to play the Qualifying Round in order to advance to the "play-offs" and main competition;

- Countries' seeds (#1 to #64) were determined by the current Grand Slam Ranking's status. The seeds determined who will play against who throughout the competition, just like in a tennis tournament;

- Competitors scores will be determined by judges' votes (50%) and popular polls (50%).