Prince Harry and Jill Biden will tonight join a virtual event to honor athletes who have missed out due to the cancellation of the Warrior Games.
The Duke of Sussex and the first lady will be showing their support for injured or sick military personnel who were due to take part in the contest until it was cancelled due to COVID-19.
And they were due to attend in person had the tournament gone ahead—but what is the 2021 Department of Defense Warrior Games?
The Warrior Games
The Warrior Games is an Olympic style tournament in which injured servicemen and women past and present compete in a range of sports for people with disabilities.
The contest is run by the Department for Defense and features wheelchair basketball, cycling, indoor rowing, wheelchair rugby and other sports.
The aim is to aid recovery and rehabilitation, according to the website for the games, which reads: "Participation in the Warrior Games represents the culmination of a service member's involvement in an adaptive sports program and demonstrates the incredible potential of wounded warriors through competitive sports."
The first games were in 2010 and the event includes teams from nations allied with America, including Britain.
Prince Harry's Connection to the Warrior Games
The Warrior Games played an important role in Prince Harry's life following his active service in the British army after it inspired him to create a similar tournament, The Invictus Games.
The Duke of Sussex served two tours of Afghanistan, the second finishing in January 2013.
Later that year, he attended the Warrior Games on a visit to Washington in which he met Jill Biden and also spent time with Britain's team.
The visit had such an impact on him he became motivated to launch a similar project, with the intention of broadening the appeal.
The Invictus Games had its launch event in 2014 at the Copper Box Arena, in East London's former Olympic Park.
Harry told the audience that the Warrior Games was "such a good idea by the Americans that it had to be stolen," ABC reported.
Harry said at the time: "When I was in Washington in 2012 I met the small contingent of the U.K. team and hearing the stories that came back from the games really ignited something in me that made me want to broaden this to wider audiences."
Since then, Invictus has become a major part of Harry's post-military life, surviving his exit from the royal family.
The duke's first venture for Netflix will be a documentary following competitors in the postponed Invictus Games The Hague 2020, which takes place next year.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more
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