Vancouver/CMEDIA: For the first time, the Invictus games reportedly on Feb 10 featured winter sports, and were hosted on Canada’s four First Nations – Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Lil’wat, which is reflected in the medals by Indigenous designer Levi Nelson.
Currently underway in Vancouver and Whistler, The 2025 Invictus Games witnesses 500 participants from more than 20 countries.
The Invictus Games were founded in 2014 by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex for wounded, injured or sick service personnel and veterans.
Featured in this year’s opening ceremony are star performers such as Chris Martin, Katy Perry and Noah Kahan.
At the Opening Ceremony Prince Harry, honoured the First Nations in his speech , expressing his gratitude “for having these Games on your land.”
For the first time this year the Games will feature winter sports, including the skeleton, skiing events and wheelchair curling, alongside indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, swimming, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball events as it has had previously.
The athletes who compete have physical and emotional traumas experienced in war and conflict. “It’s hard because kids, they’ll always ask the right questions…So you either shut it down straight away, which I will never do, or you engage in the conversation and you try to explain things, said Prince Harry.
During one such conversation, Prince Harry said his oldest five-year old Archie was asking about landmines as he had seen videos and photographs of his grandmother, the late Princess of Wales, working with landmines all those years.
“Interestingly, he gave me a chance to talk about my mum, his grandma…It produced a very interesting conversation between me and him, different to what I thought it was going to be, ” Prince Harry said.
Having taken courses on First Nations and reconciliation online, Prince Harry said that he has also heard about their stories firsthand, “learning about their spirituality” as well as their connection to the land.
“The connection to nature is what’s keeping them going,” he said. “They must look at us and go, what are you guys doing?”
More than a decade after he founded the Invictus Games, Prince Harry sees it as a promise he’s keeping to himself after he left the British military in 2015 to help soldiers heal.
“I wish we weren’t in this position 10 years later…The amount of growth and healing that you witness is quite extraordinary…What makes this so special…how the experience plays out for these guys, girls and families,” said Prince Harry.
The Games run until Feb. 16, and will conclude with a closing ceremony at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena that will feature artists including country singer Jelly Roll and Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies.
Speaking of the star power at the Games, Prince Harry says, figuring out logistics – “to find out who’s on what tour and where are they at one time” – can be tricky. “
But so many of these individuals love and respect this group of people so much, that they will move heaven and Earth to be here to support them…There are so many people out there in this world who would charge for their time, said Prince Harry.
With a mission to inspire international communities, Invictus Games offer a recovery pathway for international wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women (WIS) through the power of the unconquered human spirit.
