Team Canada – The Invictus Spirit is Strong!

May 26, 2022 -  Defence Stories

Caption

MCpl Alex Laforest (centre #8), celebrates with his teammates during a seated volleyball match at the Invictus Games The Hague 2020 on 18 April 2022. Photo credit Lyndon Goveas, CFMWS.

After it was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Team Canada was able to finally join in with 16 other participating nations to compete at the Invictus Games The Hague 2020, Netherlands, from April 16 to 22, 2022.  Despite more than two years of delays, Team Canada showed great resiliency and flexibility to remain focused on training and preparations for their events.

Many know how Harry, Duke of Sussex was first inspired to create the Invictus Games after watching the Warrior Games in the United States in 2013. The mission of the Invictus Games is to honour service members and Veterans who are ill or injured, not necessarily related to their service, by using the power of rehabilitative sports to help them on their journey of recovery. Team Canada is managed by Soldier On and was represented in all team sports (wheelchair rugby, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball) and all individual sports (athletics, swimming, archery, cycling, rowing and powerlifting). Each competitor embodied the word ‘Invictus,’ Latin for ‘unconquered,’ facing adversity and competing with perseverance, passion, esprit de corps and commitment to their own personal journey of recovery.

Master Corporal Alex Laforest, who participated in archery, sitting volleyball and swimming, reflected on his Invictus journey: 

“There are simply no single words to describe my experience at the Invictus Games. When asked if I was interested in participating, I was in a dark place in my recovery, especially from a mental perspective. Lacking motivation, drive, and at loss with which activities and hobbies I could fill my new life with limitations, the Invictus Games, through Soldier On, opened the door to a realm of new possibilities, making me discover new sports that I’d never even considered before, and helping me find new goals in life.

“Being a competitive individual, discovering these new activities, and even more so, discovering them in the company of other people who, like me have gone through a lot in life, reignited the drive and motivation that had been lacking since my accident in June 2020. As my wife stated while we were at the games, it was nice to ‘see me truly smiling and be happy for the first time in a very long time!”

What’s next?

It is important to highlight that Team Canada’s success at the Games is not defined by medals and standings, but rather by the team members’ individual experiences and personal bests on the journey to recovery and the lifelong connections made among those who have served their country. Committed to their wellbeing, the Games marked the beginning of a new chapter of their lives and they gained new skills, new connection and new inspiration.

A new group will be formed as Team Canada to attend the next Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany in 2023 before the games come back to Canadian soil for Invictus Games Vancouver/Whistler 2025!

The Invictus poem by Mr. William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) is a cornerstone inspiration to athletes who have made the Invictus journey. 

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

 

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

 

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

 

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

For more information on the Invictus Games (you are now leaving the Government of Canada website).

For information on Soldier On  (you are now leaving the Government of Canada website).

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