‘Shoulder to shoulder — you are Invictus’
Prince Harry hails athletes at star-studded closing ceremony,
It was a week of hard fought competition, inspiring displays of strength, and for many, an important milestone in a challenging road to recovery.
As the 2017 Invictus Games drew to a close Saturday evening, families, dignitaries and hundreds of spectators gathered to celebrate the triumph of the 550 wounded service people and veterans who travelled from 17 countries to compete over the past week.
“Right now, you’re on a high — at the summit of a mountain many of you thought was too high to climb,” said Prince Harry.
“You have done it. This is the moment, right here, right now, shoulder to shoulder: You are Invictus.”
It’s a sentiment that echoed throughout the evening.
“The road here was not easy for any of you, but you were determined to take it,” said Premier Kathleen Wynne. “You proved something to all of us.”
“You showed us what it means to be unconquered,” said Michael Burns, the CEO of the Toronto games.
Saturday’s closing ceremonies, which featured performances by Bruce Springsteen, Bachman and Turner, Bryan Adams, and Kelly Clarkson were a fitting tribute to the competitors.
After a week of pushing to their limits, Invictus athletes, who filled the floor seats of the Air Canada Centre, clapped and stomped and sang along as the Boss belted “You can’t start a fire, you can’t start a fire without a spark.”
Later the crowd happily shared lead vocals with Bryan Adams as he rocked “Summer of ’69.”
But nothing’s better than two rock icons sharing the stage singing Adams’ “Cuts Like a Knife” and Springsteen’s “Badlands.”
Inspired by his own military service to advocate for service people, Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games as a way to help those wounded in war with their recovery. Harry served in Afghanistan in 2008 and in the early 2010s.
Invictus, which means “unconquered” in Latin, is an ode to a poem of the same name by British poet William Ernest Henley, whose leg was amputated below the knee after he became ill with bone tuberculosis.
Over the course of the nine-day event athletes from around the world — including 90 from Canada — competed in 12 sports, among them archery, cycling, wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball and land rover driving challenges.
Founded with an eye to rehabilitation, the games are about much more than winning, Harry said.
“They’re about the journey that you and your families have made to the start line,” he told the competitors.
It was an understanding that created a unique spirit of camaraderie among competitors.
“It’s the first games I saw that you cheer more for the person that finishes last than first,” Maj. Simon Mailloux, co-captain of the Canadian team, told the Star.
“You know they went through a lot just to be there.”
As the 2017 games came to close, Harry challenged the competitors, families, and spectators to carry the Invictus spirit with them.
“Let the examples of service and resilience that you have seen, inspire you to take action to improve something — big or small — in your life, for your family, or in your community,” he said.
“Let’s create a ripple effect of the Invictus spirit across our nations, that will be the real legacy of this extraordinary week.”