Vancouver Sun

THE INVICTUS GAMES ARE NOT JUST A CAUSE THAT PRINCE HARRY JOINED — THEY ARE HIS CREATION, BORN OUT OF HIS DEDICATION TO HIS FELLOW SOLDIERS, AND ONE PARTICULAR MOMENT, WRITES BORIS STARLING.

ARMY GAVE HIM WHAT HE’D ALWAYS SOUGHT

- British author Boris Starling wrote the book Unconquera­ble: The Invictus Spirit BORIS STARLING

Like many great ideas, it started somewhere between inauspicio­us and accidental. It was March 2008, and a young army officer was flying home from Afghanista­n: not because he wanted to but because he’d been ordered to. As he stewed, he saw a curtain at the front of the plane blowing open slightly. Beyond it were three comatose soldiers wrapped up in what looked like plastic film and with bandages round the stumps of missing limbs. It was the first time this officer had seen seriously injured men, and the sight rattled him somewhere deep within himself.

That officer was Prince Harry.

He didn’t know it at the time, but he had sown the first seeds of what would eventually blossom into the Invictus Games, a multisport event for wounded, injured and sick service personnel, which began in Toronto on Sunday.

First came London 2014, then Orlando 2016. Next year will be Sydney. But right now all eyes are on Toronto, particular­ly given the worldwide interest in Harry’s relationsh­ip with California-born actress Meghan Markle, who lives in Toronto for her role in the legal drama Suits.

The speculatio­n about whether an engagement announceme­nt is imminent will irritate Harry, who has put his heart and soul into these Games — the biggest yet. He will want people to concentrat­e purely on the competitor­s — more than 550 of them from 16 nations competing in 11 adaptive sports. They’ve lost limbs, suffered crippling injury, battled cancer, dealt with post-traumatic stress, and any number of other physical and mental ailments.

For every competitor there, it’s the start line rather than the finish line that is the real achievemen­t, an achievemen­t Harry will consider far more worthy of comment than the status of his relationsh­ip.

For the Invictus Games — “invictus” is Latin for “unconquere­d” — are not just Harry’s brainchild. They are his baby through and through: forged not perhaps strictly in his own image but certainly according to his own values.

They are fiercely competitiv­e, but they’re also fun. They give a voice to the damaged and the forgotten, just as he has done with the Sentebale charity in Lesotho for orphans and vulnerable children. And they leave no man or woman behind: there are gold, silver and bronze medals, but also medallions for every competitor.

“Sport is surely the best way to support recovery of mind and body,” Harry said in 2014. “The premise is simple: set yourself a target, take your mind off all the negative thoughts and concentrat­e on the challenge in front of you, all while relearning to use your body.”

Someone battling the daily fires of post-traumatic stress or the difficulti­es of life as a triple amputee is not suddenly going to find themselves cured by competing there, but the experience could help them on their path back to as normal a life as possible. The Games have mental and social benefits as well as physical ones.

After talking to the competitor­s, it’s clear they fill the void that so many service personnel experience when they’re forced to retire. They offer, if only for a few days, the things many have been missing: their country’s flag on their chest or left arm, being part of a team, the quick-fire dark humour, the camaraderi­e. It gives them that military fix that they yearn for.

Harry himself knows all this, feels all this.

The army gave him what he’d always sought, the chance to prove himself. His fellow soldiers accepted him for the man he was rather than the title he bore: for the first time in his life, he was treated as a normal fellow rather than anyone special.

And he was good at his job. On his second tour of Afghanista­n in 2012-13, he copiloted Apache helicopter­s, something only the very best pilots in the British Army Air Corps get to do.

Lt.-Col. David Meyer, who oversaw Harry’s training before that deployment, said: “Harry’s course was incredibly well-galvanized and they tended to galvanize around him. That was one of his key strengths, as he wasn’t better than anyone else at flying or anything like that, but he just understood the whole team ethic, how to win together.”

Could there possibly be a better descriptio­n of what the Invictus Games are all about?

Moreover, it was his army experience that helped him get through the “two years of total chaos” he suffered in his late 20s while still struggling to come to terms with the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

In April this year, he told The Daily Telegraph that his work with the personnel recovery unit, where he listened to servicemen and women talk about mental health issues, had proved a turning point in his understand­ing.

“I know there is huge merit in talking about your issues and the only thing about keeping it quiet is that it’s only ever going to make it worse,” he said. “Not just for you but everybody else around you as well, because you become a problem.”

While writing Unconquera­ble: The Invictus Spirit, I spoke to dozens of people. Not one of them had a bad word to say about Harry. He’s genuinely interested in people: he wants to know their stories, he wants to know what makes them tick. He looks out for them. His emotional intelligen­ce is extraordin­ary.

Mike Goody, who lost a leg in Afghanista­n and swam in the 2014 and 2016 Games, said: “Harry was an absolute legend. He was everywhere. He was literally boosting everything, pumping everything, getting everyone going, really encouragin­g.” And multiple sclerosis sufferer Mary Wilson, athletics team captain in 2014, said: “I told him, ‘your mum would be proud of you.’ ”

Harry’s final remarks at Orlando 2016 were addressed to the competitor­s, but they apply to all of us. Here we have a group of people who have something to teach us — if only we will listen.

The Invictus spirit is there for anyone who chooses to take it. “You are all Invictus. You are now ambassador­s for the spirit of these games. Spread the word. Never stop fighting. And do all you can to lift up everyone around you.”

(PRINCE HARRY) WASN’T BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE AT FLYING ... HE JUST UNDERSTOOD THE WHOLE TEAM ETHIC, HOW TO WIN TOGETHER. — LT.-COL. DAVID MEYER

 ?? CHRIS DONOVAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS ?? Prince Harry poses with women’s 100-metre dash medallists, from left, Sabrina Daulaus of France, Sarah Rudder of the U.S., and Christy Wise of the U.S. at the Invictus Games in Toronto on Sunday. Harry, who launched the games, did two tours of duty in Afghanista­n.
CHRIS DONOVAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS Prince Harry poses with women’s 100-metre dash medallists, from left, Sabrina Daulaus of France, Sarah Rudder of the U.S., and Christy Wise of the U.S. at the Invictus Games in Toronto on Sunday. Harry, who launched the games, did two tours of duty in Afghanista­n.
 ?? CHRIS JACKSON / GETTY IMAGES FOR THE INVICTUS GAMES FOUNDATION ?? Prince Harry, who says his army experience helped him deal with his mother’s death, presents Christy Wise of the U.S. with the gold medal in athletics Sunday.
CHRIS JACKSON / GETTY IMAGES FOR THE INVICTUS GAMES FOUNDATION Prince Harry, who says his army experience helped him deal with his mother’s death, presents Christy Wise of the U.S. with the gold medal in athletics Sunday.

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