Invictus Games: The Media Coverage Mess
When we think of para sport, we often think of the Paralympics. But there are many more opportunities for athletes to compete in para-sport events on an international level. One of those opportunities is the Invictus Games. Founded by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, in 2014, the Invictus Games are a biennial multi-para-sport event for wounded and injured military personnel including veterans and those actively serving. Prince Harry was inspired to launch the Invictus Games after returning from his deployment in Afghanistan and seeing the Warrior Games, a similar para-sport event organized by the United States Department of Defense, in 2013 with the purpose of “inspiring international communities through the power of the unconquered human spirit.”
(Photo Credit: REUTERS/Fred Thornhill)
When we think of para sport, we often think of the Paralympics. But there are many more opportunities for athletes to compete in para-sport events on an international level. One of those opportunities is the Invictus Games. Founded by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, in 2014, the Invictus Games are a biennial multi-para-sport event for wounded and injured military personnel including veterans and those actively serving. Prince Harry was inspired to launch the Invictus Games after returning from his deployment in Afghanistan and seeing the Warrior Games, a similar para-sport event organized by the United States Department of Defense, in 2013 with the purpose of “inspiring international communities through the power of the unconquered human spirit.”
The seventh edition of the Invictus Games are currently underway in the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Whistler. From February 8 to February 16, 2025 athletes hailing from 23 countries alongside an international team, Team Unconquered, composed of athletes from the U.S., Canada, Ukraine, Belgium, Colombia, New Zealand, the U.K., France and Lithuania, are competing in 11 adaptive sports including sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby.
This year, the Invictus Games are more accessible than ever before as they are available to watch on streaming platforms, including ESPN+. This means that present and future fans of the sports can watch in real time from the comfort of their homes. As we saw during the 2024 Paralympics, making the games more readily available to watch live benefits everyone: the athletes, the fans, the brand partners, and, of course, the Games themselves and para sport as a whole.
Yet, the more traditional written news media coverage, as in years past, tells a different story. There are some sports-focused news outlets, such as ESPN, despite offering the live streaming as discussed above, The Athletic (The New York Times sports department), and Sports Illustrated, have no written or social coverage of the games. Moreover, the traditional news media coverage that has been written thus far primarily focuses on Prince Harry and his wife Meghan: what they’re wearing, how they’re behaving, what the games mean to them, etc. In these stories, the focus is predominantly on the royals rather than the athletes or the games themselves.
The contrast between the two forms of media coverage surrounding the Invictus Games, the traditional news media and the expansion of live streaming, highlights the power of celebrity. Celebrity is important to causes and initiatives such as the Invictus Games as it does raise public awareness. However, it can also distract from the main focus by either pulling the media, and therefore the public’s, attention completely elsewhere, or by making it harder for the more important stories to be told. When talking about the Invictus Games the first question should always be: Who are the Games for? To me, the answer is obvious: The athletes. The individuals with names, with their own story to tell, who have dedicated their life fighting for their country and who are now representing their country on a global sports stage.
