UNCONQUERED
INVICTUS GAMES
HEAD DOWN UNDER
This October the Invictus Games hit Sydney, presenting an incredible platform for wounded, injured and
ill service personnel and veterans to demonstrate the healing power of sport on the world stage.
ven if you haven’t previously been
aware of the Invictus Games, in
recent months you can’t help but
have noticed an increasingly loud drumroll
as momentum builds to this international
adaptive sporting event being hosted in
Sydney this October.
So what is the Invictus Games? Founded
by HRH The Duke of Sussex (aka, Prince
Harry) in 2014, the Invictus Games is an
international adaptive sporting event for
wounded, injured and ill service men and
women, both active duty and veteran. The
Games use the healing power of sport to
inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and
celebrate the crucial role played by family
and friends.
Speaking about the event’s inception,
Invictus Games Foundation Chief Executive
Officer Dominic Reid said: ‘There were
two things that were instrumental in Prince
Harry’s thinking. One was his flight back
out of Afghanistan when he was deployed
there. He came back on the plane with three
guys who were in induced comas and one
guy who was in a coffin. I think that was a
significant moment for him. The Prince’s
inspiration for Invictus came from having
attended the American Warrior Games in the
US in the summer of 2013, yet Prince Harry
wanted to make it bigger – he wanted it to be
more international.
‘I was approached by Prince Harry’s
former private secretary. We only really had
nine months to put the Games together,
which is a ludicrously short amount of time.
At this stage, we had no branding or funding.’
‘Invictus’ means ‘unconquered’ in Latin
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and embodies the fighting spirit of the
competitors. Inspiration was drawn from
William Ernest Henley’s poem ‘Invictus’
which shares the message of remaining
unbowed in the face of adversity. Henley
himself was an amputee, so it’s a description
of the dark place that he was in and how he
fought through.
Under the chairmanship of Sir Keith Mills,
who had just delivered the 2012 Olympic
Games in London, and with the backing of
the Mayor of London and the Ministry of
Defence, and initial funding from the Royal
Foundation, the Games were at the starting
blocks.
The inaugural Invictus Games saw more
than 400 competitors from 13 nations
participate across nine adaptive sports.
Team sports included sitting volleyball,
wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby.
Individual sports included indoor rowing,
road cycling and archery. Interestingly,
many competitors wanted to participate in
multiple sports and because there is no limit
to how many sports a competitor can enter
(provided there’s no timetable clash), that’s
exactly what many of them did.
The Games were initially intended to be
a standalone event but the impact on the
competitors and their loved ones was far
greater than could ever have been hoped for.
The organisers knew this couldn’t be a one-
off event and so established the Invictus
Games Foundation to select the hosts of
future Games, oversee their delivery and
ensure that hundreds more men and women
around the world who are still on their
recovery pathway could take part in a future