Prince Harry is in the USA, two days ahead of the Invictus Games 2016. Yesterday he joined athletes as they prepared for the competition.
Harry, 31, toured the large ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, walking though arenas and centres with members of the UK team meeting, chatting and greeting competitors.
More than 500 veterans from all over the World will take part in Invictus Games 2016, a global paralympic sports event that gathers wounded, injured or sick armed forces personnel. The games will take place from 8th to 12th May within the Walt Disney World resort.
The Royal Prince posed proudly for pictures with servicemen and women having chosen a casual look, an Invictus Games polo shirt and dark blue jeans.
He joined swimmers at the pool in the Florida sunshine.
Cheerers and viewers are in for an “emotional roller-coaster” as the Prince said earlier this week: “This is an experience, it’s an emotional roller-coaster, there’s not a single point during these games that spectators will sit there feeling sorry for these guys – that is not what this is about.
A first look around @InvictusOrlando for Prince Harry, meeting some friends along the way. pic.twitter.com/sYrdor80RN
— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) May 6, 2016
“People in America and people across the world if you haven’t seen the Games may think “oh, this is a bunch of wounded soldiers on a sporting field taking each other on”, it’s completely the opposite to what it is – it’s an emotional roller-coaster.”
The team from the UK is composed of 110 athletes who will compete in 10 sports: athletics, archery wheelchair basketball, road cycling, powerlifting, indoor rowing, wheelchair rugby, swimming, sitting volleyball, and a new sport for 2016, wheelchair tennis.
The captain of the United Kingdom’s team, David Wiseman, had also been a army Captain of the British Infantry. He was shot in the shoulder and ribs in Afghanistan in 2009. He also suffers with PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder), another mark from the war.
The captain proudly said: “I have a huge emotional attachment to the Invictus Games and could not be prouder to have been selected to Captain the UK Team at Orlando 2016. The reason for my pride? I think the Invictus Games is a shining example of what this community can achieve, a group of individuals from around the world coming together in order to show everyone that beyond injury, they can achieve the extraordinary.”
