“Still the benchmark games of our movement,” said Parsons, whose home nation Brazil hosted in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Paralympics starts with Paul McCartney's song on 100-day countdown to opening ceremony in Paris
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“Tonight, I want, I must begin with a message of peace,” Parsons said in brief remarks to the athletes and spectators at the Bird's Nest.
As war rages, Paralympics open in Beijing without Russia
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