The inaugural Invictus Games held in London this summer were a tremendous success and showed how sport can be harnessed very effectively, as part of the rehabilitation process.
The first Invictus Games saw 400 competitors from 13 nations compete across nine adaptive sports. Of course, the competitors were all Servicepeople who were either wounded, injured or sick as a result of their Service. Their common goal was to celebrate the fighting spirit that enables them to take on the journey towards rehabilitation.
The Games was a personal project of HRH Prince Harry, himself a veteran of front line Service in Afghanistan. On a visit to Colorado during 2013 he attended the Warrior Games for injured Service personnel and was inspired to take the idea back to the UK. London is well known as a city that loves parasport and so it seemed the obvious choice to host a new Games to highlight the sacrifices that men and women have made whilst serving their country and their incredible will to overcome.
Commitments to the Armed Forces
The Invictus Games project also fits in neatly with the Armed Forces Covenant, a set of commitments that was put in place in 2011 that outlines the relationship between the Nation, Government and the Armed Forces. It recognises our moral obligation to Service personnel and their families, establishing how they should be treated. Although the Covenant is not a legally binding contract it is enshrined in the Armed Forces Act (2011) with legislation in place to oblige the Defence Secretary to report annually on progress.
Perhaps this summer, more than others in recent memory, the Armed Forces have spoken for themselves, not in political rhetoric but in deeds. It isn’t unusual to see footage of British Service personnel on the television news and it’s with this imagery in mind that the public tend to form an opinion of them. The Invictus Games was an opportunity to develop these notions into something more accurate based on the principle that Service personnel are first and foremost, ordinary people, that happen to do an extraordinary job. Sometimes that job means taking extraordinary risks and sadly, that sometimes produces traumatic results.
The Invictus Games is not a Military tattoo. There is no field gun race and although there were a few cap badges and cannons on display during the opening ceremony it was interesting to see Prince Harry and the other attending Royals out of uniform; not through a lack of comradeship but as a gesture towards making the Games accessible to an audience largely consisting of people without connections to the Armed Forces. Similarly, the sports program reflected ordinary (adapted) sports. This was Servicepeople, being people – rather than being Soldiers.
Sporting Tactics
Inevitably, there were plenty of reminders that this was a competition for serving personnel and veterans but that didn’t take anything away from the sports. One of the more popular competitions was wheelchair rugby. It is, perhaps unfairly, not renowned as a sport of skill but rather as a rough and tough, almost violent cousin of rugby union, on which it’s based. Interestingly, certainly since the London Paralympics, the sport has moved on and developed and this might actually be down to the approach taken by the Armed Forces. Sure, there are still plenty of big hits; Soldiers aren’t going to shy away from physical confrontations on court but there’s much more to it now. The GB team that came away with the gold medal had clearly applied some real thinking to the sport, deconstructing it to its strategic bones and rebuilding it with a distinct playing style and spatial awareness in mind. Ball handling, space invasion and movement rather than juddering hits are now the differences between a good side and a great side.
For some Service personnel The Invictus Games will shine a path right up to elite sport. It’s entirely possible that the determination and passion on show in London will take some of these competitors all the way to the Rio Paralympics in 2016. For others, of course, it will become a cherished memory of the day they got to show what they were made of in front of the Royals and the Great British public.
Whilst Military pride meant that there was no love lost on court (or on the track or in the pool) there was plenty of admiration and respect gained.