Invictus Games to feature winter sports for 1st time when Vancouver, Whistler host in 2025

A new-look Invictus Games is coming to Vancouver and Whistler, featuring winter adaptive sports for the first time.

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, announced Friday the two B.C. municipalities will host the eight-day international sports competition for wounded and ill military personnel in February 2025.

"As Invictus continues to adapt and evolve, I am extremely excited to announce that the Invictus Games Foundation has selected Canada to host the first-ever Winter Hybrid Games in 2025,'' Prince Harry, founder and patron on the competition, said in a statement.

"The Invictus Games Vancouver-Whistler 2025 will offer a global platform to expand the range and profile of winter adaptive sports.''

Prince Harry started the games in 2013.

The competition will feature alpine skiing, nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling as well as swimming, indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball.

Over 500 athletes from more than 20 nations are expected to compete.

"We think that that combination of both indoor, traditional sports and new, innovative winter sports in a pioneering, hybrid format will be particularly exciting for competitors and their friends and families,'' said Nick Booth, CEO of True Patriot Love, a Canadian foundation that supports military members, veterans and their families.

True Patriot Love is partnering with local governments and First Nations, the provincial government and the federal government to host the 2025 games.

The foundation previously helped put on the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto, during which Prince Harry and then-girlfriend Meghan Markle made their first official public appearance as a couple.

"We learned [in 2017] just how popular the games are in