'The refugee team is an anthem of inclusion'

"How often, when visiting camps, do I meet refugees with severe disabilities. It happened to me in July in Ukraine, in Pakistan, in Sudan, this too leaves wars: I meet people with disabilities not in the glittering stadiums but where life is a struggle to live," begins Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees since 2016. And his voice cracks and almost hides in a corner of his heart.

The Paralympics will also feature the Refugee Team, eight athletes parading with the IOC flag. There were two when the team was launched in 2016: 'I received a phone call from President Bach and said yes immediately, in 2016 those endless human caravans were arriving from Syria... Uniting refugees in sport means giving them the chance to compete, to have aspirations and desires, to dream of winning and losing. It is a project that speaks of normality - sport helps them - of inclusion, which is even more significant in the Paralympics'. There are 120 million refugees in the world, 18 million of them with various forms of disability, and 80 per cent of them live in countries with few resources: 'Competing is something that pertains to human dignity, that is the purpose of our work'. Which was recognised on 26 July, during the opening of the Games, with the Olympic laurel awarded to Grandi, who is returning this evening to Paris for the ceremony: 'a great satisfaction for me and the UNHCR but above all the recognition of a long work that sees sport as a social instrument'. And a source of inspiration: 'I well remember Mohammad Abbas Karimi, a former Afghan refugee. He has no arms and his swim was an anthem of courage'.

This is what sport is: courage, desire, space for affirmation. "I hope for some medals from 'my' team, as happened at the Games with boxer Cindy Ngamba's bronze. On its own, sport does not bring peace, which is a political act, but without political acts there is no peace'. And the thoughts of Grandi, a man of peace, are already with the next man to extend his hand.