On Wednesday, Prince Harry made an exciting announcement about his “inspiring international family” as he welcomed Colombia and Nigeria to the Invictus Games Foundation.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry treat Lilibet to incredible birthday cake – see photo
Last month, Harry, the founder of the Invictus Games Foundation, hosted the paralympic-style games in The Hague, Netherlands. At the tournament, he was joined by his wife Meghan Markle, and 20 countries competed, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Afghanistan, France, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, the Netherlands, and Ukraine.
“The world felt the power of our Invictus community last month in The Hague,” he said in a statement, “and now I am delighted to announce that we have two new nations – Colombia and Nigeria – joining our inspiring international family.”
“I’m proud to share that Invictus is now represented across every continent as we continue to harness the power of sport in recovery and rehabilitation year-round” (except Antarctica).
“The Invictus community of nations is built on the strength of the men and women who serve or have served, and it’s a great honor to be able to include even more wounded, injured, and sick service personnel and veterans in the community and programming we provide.”
The participating nations for the 2023 Dusseldorf Invictus Games have yet to be announced, so it’s unclear whether Colombia and Nigeria will compete. Over time, more countries are expected to join. The We Are Invictus platform for international wounded, injured, and sick service personnel and veterans is available to community members.
Help for Heroes, the charity responsible for the selection, training, and welfare of UK competitors at the Invictus Games, will no longer be directly involved in Team UK, according to the announcement.
The charity said in a statement this week that the decision was not theirs, but that the Ministry of Defence had decided that the Royal British Legion would lead the end-to-end delivery of Team UK to the Invictus Games for the next five years, as well as be the program’s main funder.
“The Royal British Legion was able to offer secure funding, more personnel to support the team, and a commitment to supporting Team UK into the future,” a Ministry of Defence spokesperson said. As a result, we believe this is the best option for Team UK. Our top priority is to provide the best possible experience for Team UK, as well as our wounded, injured, and sick service personnel and veterans.
“We are eternally grateful to Help for Heroes for all of their efforts in getting Team UK to the Invictus Games, and we will continue to collaborate with them to support the Armed Forces community.”
Very nice! Keep up doing all your good works, Harry. I fully support you.