Invictus Games (16 – 22 April 2022) in The Hague
The Invictus Games is an international sporting event for military personnel and veterans who have sustained psychological or physical injuries in the army. The initiator of the sporting event is British Prince Harry. The Games were originally scheduled to take place in 2020, but were postponed by two years due to the coronavirus. Location: Zuiderpark, The Hague. This is the 5th time the event is being held.
Invictus Games
The Invictus Games (Invictus = Latin for unconquered) is an international sporting event for military personnel and veterans who have sustained psychological (e.g., PTSD) or physical injuries in the army. The initiator of the sporting event is British Prince Harry. He was inspired by the Warrior Games, a similar event held in the United States.
History
The first edition of the Invictus Games was held in March 2014 at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London (England). It was the main venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics. 14 countries participated.
The 2017 edition was held in September in Toronto (Canada) with 17 countries, and the 2018 edition in October in Sydney (Australia) with 18 countries. The 2020 edition, which was to take place in The Hague, was postponed to 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic. 17 countries are participating. Due to coronavirus infections, the delegations from Afghanistan, Jordan, and New Zealand are absent.
Sports
The approximately five hundred participants from 17 countries are competing in ten sports: athletics, weightlifting, archery, indoor rowing, Land Rover Driving Challenge, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, cycling, sitting volleyball, and swimming. Most sports take place at locations in and around the Zuiderpark. In fact, the event is comparable to the Paralympics, with the difference that athletes from the military participate who have sustained psychological or physical injuries. They are mostly veterans. An exception are the athletes from Ukraine. After the event, they will return to the front for the war against Russia. Two athletes could not go and remained there. One of them was taken prisoner.
Prins Harry
The Invictus Games in The Hague kick off on Saturday, April 16, 2022. On Friday, British Prince Harry, the initiator of the sporting event, and his wife Meghan arrived at the site in The Hague's Zuiderpark. The event runs until April 22, 2022.
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that was classified under anxiety disorders in the DSM-IV. In the DSM-5, the disorder is included in a new chapter, Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders. DSM is an American classification system for mental disorders and stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of MMental Disorders. The condition arises as a result of severe stressful situations involving a threat to life, serious physical injury, or a threat to physical integrity, or prolonged or severe unsafe psychosocial conditions. These situations are traumatic for the individual. Examples of severe stressful situations for military personnel include war, civil war, and other armed conflicts, for example in WWI and WWII.
The symptoms are reliving (nightmares or flashbacks), avoidance of memories or emotional numbing thereof, severe irritability and sleep disturbances, extreme tension resulting from certain stimuli, irritation, and severe startle reactions. It is also possible that the person exhibits symptoms of other mental disorders, such as clinical depression. PTSD is diagnosed when the symptoms last longer than a month. When they last less than a month, it is referred to as acute stress disorder. PTSD can be cured or improved with treatment.
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