The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event first held in 2014, for wounded, injured and sick military service personnel, both serving and veterans. The word 'Invictus' is Latin for 'unconquered', chosen as an embodiment of the fighting spirit of the wounded, injured and sick service personnel and what they can achieve, post-injury. The Invictus Games were not founded by Prince Harry. Inspiration for the Invictus Games came from Prince Harry's 2013 visit to the

Warrior Games The Warrior Games is a multi-sport event for wounded, injured or ill service personnel and veterans organized by the United States Department of Defense. History 2010–2014 The Warrior Games have taken place annually since 2010 except ...

in the United States, where he witnessed the ability of sport to help both psychologically and physically.

Launch

The Games were launched on 6 March 2014 by Prince Harry at London's Copper Box arena, used as a venue during the 2012 Olympics. Having seen a British team competing at the US

held in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

in 2013, Harry wished to bring the concept of a similar international sporting event to the United Kingdom. With the backing of

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Ministry of Defence, the event was put together over ten months. £500,000 of funding for the project came from the Endeavour Fund, an arm of the Royal Foundation Prince Harry had created specifically for veterans' recovery, with an equal amount being pledged by

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

George Osborne from

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...

funds generated by fines imposed on banks as a result of the Libor scandal. The Games were also sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover.

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

was announced as a sponsor in 2018 and became a presenting partner in 2023. Speaking at the launch, Prince Harry said that the Games would "demonstrate the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and demonstrate life beyond disability". He also said that their long-term objective was to ensure that injured troops are not forgotten as Britain's involvement with the War in Afghanistan comes to an end.

Host cities

Invictus Games Foundation

The Invictus Games Foundation is the owner of the brand and the selector of future Host Cities. It is responsible for sport and competition management, rules, categorisations and branding. The bidding process for future games started in November 2014.

Governance

The people who govern the foundation are: *Patron: Prince Harry *Chairman: Charles Allen, Baron Allen of Kensington ;Trustees *Melanie Richards *Paddy Nicoll *Karen Briggs * JJ Chalmers *Conny Wenting * Jonathan Edwards *Edward Lane Fox *Nick Loughran ;Staff: *Chief Executive Officer: Dominic Reid (2014–25) Rob Owen (2025–) *Deputy Chief Executive Officer: Richard Smith *Chief Development Officer: Helen D'Oyley *Communications Director: Sam Newell *Grants and Programme Director: Mickaela Richards *Finance Director: Ruth Paul *International Development Director: David Wiseman *Head of Partnerships: Nick Smith *Digital Communications Manager: Paul Saunders *Endeavours Programme Manager: Fiona Cranswick *Operations Manager: Caroline Davis *Invictus Community Liaison Executive: Josh Boggi *Invictus Endeavours Administrator: Angelo Anderson *Grants and Operations Support Executive: Maria Ribeiro

Ambassador

Lewis Hamilton Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver who competes in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari. Hamilton has won a joint-record seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles—tied with M ...

, a seven-time Formula One World Champion, was appointed the first ambassador; he visited Tedworth House before the announcement. In July 2015, Lewis invited some Invictus Games athletes to the British Grand Prix.

History

2014 Invictus Games

Wheelchair rugby at Invictus Games 140912-N-PW494-279

The first Invictus Games were held in London on 10–14 September 2014. Around 300 competitors from 13 countries which have fought alongside the United Kingdom in recent military campaigns participated. Competitive events were held at many of the venues used during the 2012 Olympics, including the Copper Box and the Lee Valley Athletics Centre. The Games were broadcast by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. 14 countries were invited to the 2014 games, 8 from Europe, 2 from Asia, 2 from North America and 2 from Oceania. No countries from Africa were invited. Teams from all the invited countries, except Iraq, took part. The closing concert was broadcast on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

, hosted by Clare Balding and Greg James. The concert was hosted by

Nick Grimshaw Nicholas Peter Andrew Grimshaw (born 14 August 1984), nicknamed "Grimmy", is an English broadcaster and author. He became known for having hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1. He is also known as a television presenter for his Channel 4 rol ...

and Fearne Cotton, with live performances from

Foo Fighters The Foo Fighters are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Initially founded as a one-man project by former Nirvana (band), Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, the band comprises vocalist/guitarist Grohl, bassist Nate Mendel, gu ...

Kaiser Chiefs Kaiser Chiefs are an English indie rock band from Leeds who originally formed in 1996 as Runston Parva, before reforming as Parva in 2000, and releasing one studio album, ''22'', in 2003, before renaming and establishing themselves in their cur ...

, James Blunt, Rizzle Kicks,

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a British and Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer. He is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million album, records and Single (music), si ...

and Ellie Goulding.

2016 Invictus Games

On 14 July 2015, Prince Harry announced the 2016 Invictus Games would take place from 8–12 May 2016 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. On 28 October 2015, Prince Harry, USA's First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

and Second Lady Jill Biden launched Invictus Games 2016 at

Fort Belvoir Fort Belvoir ( ) is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It was developed on the site of the former Belvoir (plantation), Belvoir plantation, seat of the prominent Lord ...

. In order to bring Invictus Games to the US, Military Adaptive Sports Inc. (MASI) was created, and worked to build on the success of the Invictus Games 2014 held in London. Ken Fisher served as chairman and CEO for Invictus Games Orlando 2016. All 14 countries from the 2014 Games were invited back, while Jordan was the only new invitee.

2017 Invictus Games

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

hosted the 2017 Invictus Games in September 2017 during Canada's sesquicentennial. Building from hosting the Pan American and Parapan American Games in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, Toronto's organizers planned to feature more competitors, nations and sports—such as ice events—than previously. Unlike prior games which were hosted at a single site, multiple venues around the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the Toronto, City of Toronto and the regional municipality, regional municipalities of Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham, Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton, Regional ...

hosted the 12 sporting events and opening and closing ceremonies. The Air Canada Centre hosted the ceremonies. Fort York National Historic Site hosted the archery; Nathan Phillips Square hosted wheelchair tennis; Ryerson University's Mattamy Athletic Centre hosted the indoor rowing, powerlifting, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby; St. George's Golf and Country Club hosted the golf; The Distillery District hosted the Jaguar Land Rover driving challenge; High Park hosted cycling;

Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre (TPASC; ) is a sports complex in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Co-owned by the City of Toronto government, City of Toronto and the University of Toronto Scarborough, it is operated by TPASC Inc., with programming offe ...

hosted swimming, sitting volleyball and wheelchair basketball; and York Lions Stadium hosted the athletics. Michael Burns was the CEO for the 2017 Games, and the official mascot for the Games was Vimy, a Labrador. All 15 countries from the 2016 Games were invited back, with new invitations going to Romania and Ukraine.

2018 Invictus Games

Bids to host the 2018 Invictus Games closed in December 2015. The Gold Coast in Australia announced its intention to bid, using facilities built for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In November 2016,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia, was announced as the host city. Patrick Kidd was the CEO. The Royal Australian Mint released a commemorative $1 coin featuring Braille text in the lead-up to the Games. All 17 countries from the 2017 Games were invited back, with an invitation extended to Poland. Off the back of the Invictus Games in Sydney, legacy organisation ''Invictus Australia'' was set up to continue to support veterans and their families through sport within Australia beyond the games period. It has partnerships with the Australian Sports Commission and Volunteering Australia.

2020 Invictus Games

The games were to be held on 9–16 May 2020 at the Zuiderpark Stadion in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, Netherlands, but were postponed to 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. They were then postponed again to the spring of 2022. The new dates were 16 April to 22 April 2022. In April 2021, it was announced that '' Heart of Invictus'', a

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

documentary series in partnership with Invictus Games and Archewell, would surround the competitors from the 2022 Invictus Games. Prince Harry would executive produce the series and appear on camera. The funding from the documentary series would go to the Invictus Games Foundation, and their work supporting international wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans.

2023 Invictus Games

Games were to be held in 2022 in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, Germany, in the Merkur Spiel-Arena. Following the postponement of the 2020 Games to 2022, the Düsseldorf Games were postponed to 2023.

2025 Invictus Games

On 22 April 2022, the Duke of Sussex announced that the 2025 games will take place in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

and Whistler, Canada. It is the first edition of Invictus Games to feature winter adaptive sports, including alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling. The bid to host the games was submitted by True Patriot Love Foundation, in partnership with the Government of Canada, the province of British Columbia and the two Canadian municipalities and in partnership with the local Lil'wat, Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh indigenous nations.

2027 Invictus Games

In July 2024, it was announced that

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

will be hosting the 2027 Invictus Games, which will be held at the

National Exhibition Centre The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is an exhibition centre located in Marston Green, England, near to Birmingham and Solihull. It is near junction 6 of the M42 motorway, and is adjacent to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham International rail ...

. For the first time pickleball is expected to be included in the Invictus Games.

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

-based Gaz Golightly, a military veteran and amputee, lobbied for inclusion of the sport after trying various wheelchair sports and deciding pickleball was by far the most inclusive for wheelchair users.

References

External links

* {{Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex * Disabled multi-sport events Military sports competitions Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Recurring sporting events established in 2014 2014 establishments in the United Kingdom NATO