In 2008, Prince Harry was leaving Afghanistan with a bitter taste in his mouth. The 23-year-old's deployment as an officer in the country's bloody Helmand Province was being cut short after his presence in the war zone was reported by the press. Knowledge of his whereabouts, it was decided, would endanger his troops, so the young Royal was being sent home.

That flight back to Britain, while disappointing, would sow the idea for what would become the Invictus Games, a kind of Olympics for wounded soldiers that will be hosted in Toronto next year. In a speech at the Royal York hotel on Monday to launch the event, Prince Henry of Wales – his official title – spoke about the origins of the annual competition, now in its second year, that has become bound up with his famous image.

Eight years ago, the Prince was brooding over his removal from the field as he waited aboard his plane on the Afghan tarmac for others to board, he said.

"It was a decision over which I had no control," he recalled. "But the guilt over having to leave my guys behind was something that I was gonna have to swallow."

While he contemplated his fate, the coffin of a Danish soldier was loaded onto the aircraft. The sight put his predicament in perspective. "For me, this represented the stark reality and contrasts of war," the Prince said.

Before they took off, the Prince said he poked his head through a curtain separating compartments of the plane and caught sight of three British soldiers, "really young lads," lying on stretchers. They were amputees, "with tubes coming out of them everywhere," he recalled. "This visceral image was something I hadn't prepared myself for."

It was also an image that stuck with the young Prince. In 2012, he returned to a combat role in Afghanistan, this time flying high-tech Apache helicopters. One of his tasks was to help evacuate injured soldiers.

"Again, I was reminded of the human impact of conflict," he said.

The following year, he visited the U.S.-based Warrior Games in Colorado, billed as a Paralympics for injured U.S. military personnel. The Prince was struck, he said, by the men and women he saw smiling as they competed, despite injuries that compared to those of the British soldiers he saw on his first flight home from Afghanistan.

"I knew what I had to do," he said. "Sport is what made the difference. Sport could help these guys fix their lives and those around them."

But the Prince was also struck by the event's low profile and its sparsely attended contests. This was something he could improve on, he decided.

For the inaugural 2014 Invictus Games in London, organizers were able to use state-of-the art-venues from the city's 2012 Olympics and reach a TV audience of millions.

"We put on a show," the Prince said. More importantly, he added, "we created a platform which helped to smash the stigma that existed around their injuries."

"We showed that veterans didn't need our sympathy, just the opportunity to play a meaningful role in society once again."

This year's Games in Orlando will the mark the second staging of the competition. Toronto will host the event in September, 2017, when 600 competitors from 16 countries will participate.

"The Toronto Games are going to be, I'm promised, the biggest and best Invictus Games yet," the Prince said.

They will also be the first to include sledge hockey, a version of the game in which players are strapped in to long-bladed sleighs and propel themselves using two hockey stick fragments.

Asked before the ceremonial puck drop of a Team Canada scrimmage on Monday why the sport had been adopted for the Toronto Games, the Prince quipped, "This is Canada: Everything happens on ice, doesn't it?"

Digs at the host country aside, the Prince's military background has helped him forge a bond with the Invictus athletes, Team Canada track and field competitor Captain Simon Mailloux said.

"I think he's a great sponsor for us," said Capt. Mailloux, who lost his left leg below the knee after an improvised explosive device destroyed his vehicle in Afghanistan in 2007. "He's also a captain who was in the field with us – Captain Wales, he was called with his troops. So when you sit down with him and you chit-chat about what happened there, he knows. He was deployed at the same time that I was. He was in Helmand, I was in Kandahar.… So there's a connection right away."

The 2016 Games in Orlando take place from May 8 to 12.

Profiles

by Eric Andrew-Gee and David Ebner

Simon Mailloux

Captain Simon Mailloux lost his left leg below the knee and broke his jaw when an improvised explosive device (IED) destroyed his command vehicle in Kandahar in 2007. Getting involved in adapted sports – competitions for people with disabilities – helped him recover physically and mentally, he said.

Incorporating combat veterans suffering from mental illness, as the Invictus Games do, is "key," he believes. "Veterans with mental illness – they are as injured if not more than we are, physically. They need to have this capacity to be included. They feel like they're not really injured, they're not part of it. So we need to bring them in. And sometimes they've been through darker times than we've been in."

Capt. Mailloux, 32, who's from Quebec City, will be competing in track and field events at the Games in Orlando next week. Performing in front of a home crowd in Toronto next year will mean "pressure," he said with a grin, noting that even at the launch ceremony on Monday, he felt "like a rock star." But wherever they're held, Capt. Mailloux said he's grateful for the Invictus Games.

"These Games are very important to us, because it allows us to go and compete at an international level, something that we never thought we would do, especially when you get wounded," he said.

Mark Hoogendoorn

Master Corporal Mark Hoogendoorn will be competing for Team Canada at this year's Invictus Games in powerlifting, track and field and indoor rowing. Just more than five years ago, the Grimsby, Ont., native lost his leg when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan.

The Invictus Games "mean the world" to him, he said – especially the 2017 Games in Toronto.

"It's gonna be awesome – I don't even know how to explain it, to be honest. Already, everybody's talking about it on the team."

Being part of Team Canada has been crucial for many of its members, the 30-year-old said. "It's an excuse for them – it helps them get out of the house.… They're now in a group setting with people who have been through their own challenges, trials, tribulations, where they know they can just be them and not worry about what this person might think or say. So it's great for them."

Bruno Guevremont

In 2009, when Bruno Guevremont was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, he was part of a team that took out IEDs, neutralizing several a day. One particularly harrowing encounter saw Mr. Guevremont remove the vest from an attempted-suicide bomber who had been captured.

Back home in Canada, in the summer of 2010, the Gatineau native was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. He felt dark and hopeless, and was beset with everything from anxiety to panic attacks. He planned for suicide.

But Mr. Guevremont, who retired from the Canadian military in 2014 after a 15-year career in both the army and the navy, found respite in sport. "I was really tired of being depressed and hurting all the time," he said. "I started thinking about when was I happy; when was I feeling good about myself? It was when I was working out."

The 42-year-old is now preparing to head to the Invictus Games as captain of Team Canada and will compete in indoor rowing.

CrossFit, an exercise regime, has been central for Mr. Guevremont's well-being, and he opened his own CrossFit gym in Victoria. "You learn ways to cope," he said. "For me, it's fitness."

Royalty

by Globe staff and The Canadian Press

Harry recent shared a moment of onscreen levity with his grandmother the Queen, U.S. President Barack Obama, and his wife, Michelle, to promote the 2016 Games. The Obamas accepted a challenge to the Invictus Games, complete with a mic-drop gesture, and in his reply, Harry made a mic-drop of his own.

Not to be outdone, Mr. Trudeau enlisted Canada's Invictus athletes and a dog to deliver a "boom" of his own, while doing pushups.

SPORTS

by David Ebner

The Invictus Games focus on women and men who are serving or have served in the military and are wounded, injured or sick. The power of sport to buoy athletes, physically and mentally, as they recover from their injuries is the underpinning belief of the Games.

450: Approximate number of soldier-athletes who competed in the first Invictus Games, in London in 2014. In Orlando next week, more than 500 athletes are expected to participate.

15: Number of countries participating in the the second Invictus Games in Orlando from May 8 to May 12, including Afghanistan, Denmark, Iraq, the United States and Britain. Canada will send 28 athletes.

10: Number of competitive events to be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, including track and field, swimming, wheelchair rugby, tennis and basketball. A driving challenge, backed by Invictus sponsor Jaguar Land Rover, is an added event that involves two athletes from each country working together on a course of speed and skill.

150, 100 and 75: Milestone anniversaries being celebrated in Canada in 2017. Toronto's Invictus Games will land on several anniversaries, starting with Canada's 150th. It will also be 75 years since the Battle of Dieppe in the Second World War and 100 years since the Battle of Vimy Ridge in the First World War.

2017: The year Toronto will play host to the largest Invictus Games. Organizers expect more than 600 athletes participating in events at three different venues. Two sports will be added at next year's Games: golf and sledge hockey. The Games will also be the first to feature a national torch relay, igniting the Invictus spirit across all 32 Canadian military bases and neighbouring communities. Also expected at the event is the mascot Vimy, a cartoon-style yellow Labrador that will represent a military service dog.

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