In a sneak peek to a docuseries about Invictus Games, the Duke of Sussex addresses wounded and injured military veterans competing in the annual sports event.
- August 18, 2023
AceShowbiz - Prince Harry hopes to help the competitors of the Invictus Games learn "how to be part of a community again." The Duke of Sussex launched the event in 2014, which uses the power of sport to inspire and encourage wounded, injured and sick military veterans, and in a trailer for his upcoming docuseries "Heart of Invictus", he explained how he wanted the competition to focus on recovery, not how the people taking part sustained their injuries.
"The games doesn't focus on what causes the injury, but really about the recovery and how to be a part of a community again," he said in the clip.
The trailer is based on Harry's opening and closing speeches during last year's games in the Hague, and he celebrated the "substance, resilience [and]strength" of the competitors. He said, "It is here at the Invictus Games that you realise whatever you carry, it was the springboard that propelled you to the next level."
And at the end of the games, he is seen telling competitors, "If your goal was to make your country proud, you've done it. If your goal was to make your family happy, you've achieved it. You are people of substance, of resilience, of strength. You have the Heart of Invictus."
The trailer featured the 38-year-old former soldier meeting some of the competitors. Harry told one, "Everyone's going to struggle at some point."
Among those to appear in the documentary is Yulia "Taira" Paievska, a Uktrainian military medic who was captured during the siege of Mariupol shortly before last year's games. She had been given a body camera to film for the series and it was later smuggled out of the country. She was released by the Russians last June and Harry personally called her a week later.
Yulia later credited the attention surrounding the games for helping save her life. She told the Daily Telegraph newspaper, "I am very grateful to Prince Harry, because it was after ... the Invictus Games that the Russians stopped interrogating and torturing me. I think that spreading the word to the whole world influenced their decision to trade me in a prisoner exchange."
The five-part series will be released on Netflix on August 30, 10 days before this year's event - which will run from September 9-16 - kicks off in Dusseldorf.
