Invictus Games Sydney 2018: Harry’s very big idea
Afghanistan changed everything for a prince who has dedicated himself to improving the life and career prospects for disabled servicemen and women.
Prince Harry emerges from a Tristar military plane at the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton, rucksack over one shoulder, one hand on the rail, the other grasping a kit bag. His sunburned face is etched with concern and shock.
It’s 2008, and the 23-year-old is returning from 10 weeks of active duty in Afghanistan. The trip back has shocked him. Sitting among the medivac operations at the back of the plane, he found himself near the body of a Danish soldier. Around him lay severely injured British military personnel – all in comas, missing limbs and wrapped in plastic – under the intense care of doctors desperately trying to keep them alive.
The sight of comrades so terribly maimed and facing a shocking and uncertain future was far tougher than Harry’s deployment as a second lieutenant in the Household Cavalry. In that role as a Forward Air controller, he called in air strikes, carried out surveillance of the Taliban and plotted bombing raid co-ordinates.
American pilots hearing his voice only knew him as Widow Six Seven. To his annoyance, Harry’s cover was blown in the international press and he had been forced to return early from his tour of duty, although he was intent on returning to Helmand province. But that day as he came down the steps of the aircraft to be met by Prince William and Prince Charles, any irritation had been replaced by worry.
His first conversation was about Marine Ben McBean, just 21, whom the medics on the plane had been trying to stop from bleeding to death. McBean’s right leg and left arm had been blown off, and he had suffered head injuries and bad burns when he stepped on a landmine in a routine patrol. Another soldier had shrapnel wounds to the neck and had been saved only by the death of his partner, who took the brunt of the explosion. For the young prince, those hours in the aircraft had been dramatic.
He told the waiting media: “I’m not a hero; these two injured soldiers are the heroes. These were guys who were blown up by a mine that they had no idea about – serving their country, doing a normal patrol.” It proved to be a turning point for a young man who, while held in great affection, had also developed a reputation as less responsible and mature than his older brother.
During this period the Palace was resisting the idea of Harry returning to the front line and a disappointed prince quickly switched his focus towards building support for colleagues injured on the battlefield. Within weeks he had visited Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre in Surrey to see how Marine McBean and the other injured soldiers were faring. There he also came across one of the soldiers with whom he had done his army training – Marine Mark Ormrod, who was in the middle of recuperating from lengthy surgery having lost both legs and an arm during an Afghanistan patrol on Christmas Eve 2007.
The prince had found a cause, and in the next few years he mixed royal and army duties, and gave priority to events related to war injury rehabilitation. He encouraged fundraising for Help For Heroes and joined the Walking with the Wounded trek to the North Pole for four days. He was so inspired he committed to the full trek to the South Pole the following year.
Harry has always felt comfortable in the sporting world. The drive, teamwork, discipline and mateship correlated with his army life. His admiration for the England rugby team matched that of the extreme sports challenges he gravitated towards. But at the 2012 London Paralympics, where he watched some of his former military comrades compete at the highest levels, he crystallised his idea for a sporting competition specifically for wounded military. The prince reasoned that it could help restore some focus and self-esteem at a critical point in their people’s recovery.
Shortly after the Games, Harry went back to Afghanistan, this time as a co-pilot gunner aboard an Apache helicopter with the 662 Squadron. At the end of the tour, he attended the Warrior Games in the US to see if his idea of a global games for injured war veterans could work. He gave up flying helicopters and took a desk job to finetune the plans and, with the expertise of key executives from the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Invictus Games was born, with Harry as patron and Sir Keith Mills, deputy of the 2012 Games, chairing the Invictus Foundation Board.
At the foundation launch, Harry said: “Bear in mind these are military people who have been cut down in their prime. They want to have a goal in life. To be told in a day, right, that’s it, you’re not going to walk again, you’re not going to see again. This is an opportunity for them and members of the public as well to walk in together with one goal. It’s life changing, really it’s life changing. Listening to them talk about it is inspiring … to bring themselves back into society when some of them feel, now that they are disabled, they are pushed aside. They are not. This is so much more than that.”
Dominic Reid, who has vast experience in multi-sport events, became the Games’ event manager and later chief executive. In London, he tells The Deal: “Prince Harry just told me ‘I need to enhance their quality of life’ and he wanted to do as much as he could. Coming home in the back of the plane with the badly injured men had a profound effect on him. He wanted to have something similar to the Warrior Games, but more outward looking, more international.”
Within nine months the first Invictus Games were held in London. They were a great success. While the organisers always knew the athletes would be keen, they were surprised by the public support.
“These were not familiar athletes the public knew, but people were compelled to watch,” says Reid. “It was incredibly moving to see them cheering the last person finishing more loudly than the first.”
Reid believes public perception dwelt less on athletes becoming disabled because of military service than on individuals who were overcoming enormous obstacles.
“It really affected the perception of disability, how they are seen, and how they are perceived,” he says.
Other cities began to bid to host the next editions of the Games, and they were held in Orlando in 2016 and Toronto in 2017. After the Sydney Games – encouraged by the NSW and federal governments wanting to commemorate 100 years since the end of World War I – Invictus will begin a two-year rotation, with The Netherlands hosting the Games in The Hague in May 2020.
The importance of the prince’s link with the Games is obvious. Among the first joint public engagements for Harry and Meghan Markle, his then fiancee, was a meeting with his wounded warrior friends, including Ormrod, as they trained for the games. And it was during the Toronto games last year that the two publicly announced themselves as a couple.
The Invictus Foundation is a lean operation, with one full-time employee, a few part-time consultants and half a million pounds in the bank. Harry has attended almost every board meeting and is insistent that the services for the athletes be top-notch.
One board member says: “He has high emotional intelligence and brings a sensible and down-to-earth approach to issues because of his 10 years in the army.”
The Invictus Foundation’s role is to award the Games to various cities and liaise with the local organising committees to ensure they are kept true to their original purpose.
“We have responsibility for the rules, the categorisations and who gets invited,” says Reid, confirming that the Sydney Games will feature 500 competitors from 18 nations. “Five hundred is not a vast number but the Games acts as something that people can aim for. The needs of those injured and sick is not the same as ex-military who are fit and healthy and need a job. When you have had three limbs blown off, financially you are paid off but you still need a purpose and something to do.”
Harry’s vision has yielded some big successes. On the strength of the Invictus Games, former Royal Marine JJ Chalmers is now presenting on the BBC despite life-changing injuries. Former captain Dave Henson, who lost his legs while searching for a landmine, has since combined Paralympic and Invictus success with a PhD in prosthetics and a place as a trustee on the foundation board.
Henson explains why sport is so important to his recovery.
“When we were on the [basketball] court nothing else mattered,” he says. “No one cared how many legs you did or didn’t have; it was all about getting across the court as quickly as possible, digging out blind to get that ball that would otherwise cost your team just one point. That’s what sport in recovery is all about. Forgetting about the pain and the drama for 10 minutes, an hour. Get your head in the game and don’t let your team down.”
Harry’s instincts that a sporting challenge would help his wounded colleagues was spot on, according to researcher Dr Nick Caddick from the Veterans and Families Institute for Military Social Research at Anglia Ruskin University. Caddick says research shows sport can be particularly effective for military veterans, as it helps recreate a familiar sense of belonging and camaraderie. He argues that the Invictus Games also reinforces the link between sport and the physical exertions so intrinsic to military life.
“Sport is a strong motivation to get out and do things and it’s also one piece of the puzzle helping them move on, coming to terms with their experience or dealing with transition out of the military to civilian life, and that where a lot can struggle,” he says. Sport is only a piece of the recovery, however, and the consequences of massive injuries are lifelong.
Harry knows this too, and is now steering the Invictus Foundation to investigate hosting a biennial Invictus Conference, which will bring together the thoughts of global experts on all facets of rehabilitating the wounded.
When Harry officially retired from the army, he said: “It [army life] became an opportunity for me to escape the limelight.” But the army has powerfully shaped his own ethos and his standing in the community, while the Invictus Games, born of his traumatic military experience, has proved a boon for injured servicemen the world over.
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