Invictus Games or reconstruction through sport for war wounded
The fifth edition of the Invictus Games will be held from April 16-22 in The Hague, Netherlands.
AFP - SERGEI SUPINSKY
Text by: Farid Achache Follow
4 mins
The fifth edition of the
Invictus Games
will be held from April 16-22 in The Hague, Netherlands.
This international sports competition, sponsored by Prince Harry, brings together more than five hundred injured or disabled soldiers and veterans, in twelve disciplines.
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After London in 2014, Orlando in 2016, Toronto in 2017 and Sydney in 2018, the
Invictus Games
are back.
This year, around twenty athletes will wear the colors of France among the 19 nations represented.
This gathering was scheduled for 2020 and was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Modeled after the Paralympic Games
The first edition was launched in the United Kingdom in 2014 by Prince Harry, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, when he returned from Afghanistan after serving in the ranks of the British army.
Prince Harry was inspired in particular by the
Warrior Games
, a competition organized each year in California by the American army for its wounded soldiers.
The
Invictus Games
can be said to be akin to the Paralympic Games, which set the UK on fire with
London 2012
.
Among the 4,400 athletes who were in
Tokyo in 2021
, a dozen of them were veterans of Afghanistan, injured in operation.
From volleyball to athletics, via archery, golf, wheelchair rugby or even swimming, everyone will come to measure up to the other, to continue to grow and make their handicap a strength. .
Invictus
("undefeated" in Latin) is a short poem written in 1875 by the English poet William Ernest Henley who, suffering from tuberculosis, had to have his leg amputated.
This poem was also one of Nelson Mandela's favorites.
The poem ends with two emblematic verses: "
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my
soul
"
.
“I only had the idea of resorting in my head”
Victim of a stroke in exercise in 2001, fell into a coma, Sébastien was at the time of the tragedy a skilled runner, who achieved more than respectable times, before ending up in a wheelchair.
For two long years, he had to learn to walk again, before considering going back to athletics to rebuild himself physically and especially psychologically.
In The Hague, he will take part in two athletics events: the 1500m and the 400m.
From his stroke, he kept hemiplegic sequelae on the left side.
“
A few months after my stroke, I only had the idea of having recourse in my head.
It saved me.
At the beginning, I ran slowly, and as I am a very proud person, a quality, I had to progress quickly.
I went back to the club, I trained a lot, and I started to make podiums at the French championships in disabled athletics
, ”says Sébastien to RFI.
One day, an executive from the National Center for Defense Sports (CNDS) in Fontainebleau offered him to take part in the Invictus games in Orlando in 2016. “
Sport gave me steely morale and a very strong will.
Thanks to sport, I became almost able-bodied again.
Today, people look at me more as an able-bodied person than as a disabled person.
With the sport, I felt valued
,” he says.
Able to run the 10 km in 38 minutes (33 minutes before his stroke) with his disability, he even participated in the semi-finals of the French cross championships with the able-bodied.
The forgotten history of conflicts across the planet
These
Invictus Games
also tell the story of conflicts across the planet.
Most of the time distant wars, with wounded soldiers, amputated, that we do not see.
In Afghanistan, 89 French soldiers were killed and there are around 700 wounded.
In less than a decade, 58 French army soldiers lost their lives in the Sahel as part of the
Serval and then Barkhane operations
.
“
In Orlando, I was impressed to see the Americans and the Iraqis rub shoulders in the same hotel
, recalls Sébastien.
When you know what happened between these two nations, it was moving to see them look at each other without malice, only sportingly
.
In his closing speech in 2014, Prince Harry said that the
Invictus Games
were also a competition "
where two competitors choose to cross the line hand in hand, where the winners, having just arrived, turn to applaud and encourage those who are behind
”.
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