Injury to Invictus: Australian team announced for games
Australia's team of injured or ill military personnel and veterans who will compete in the 2018 Invictus Games has been announced at the Sydney Opera House.
The games, known for using the power of sport to inspire recovery and rehabilitation, will take place this October in the Harbour City.
Wounded, injured and sick veterans as well as serving defence personnel say the adaptive competition helps them overcome their physical and mental challenges.
Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games after being inspired by a visit to the 2013 US-based Warrior Games — a sporting competition for ill and injured American service members and veterans.
Invictus is Latin for undefeated or unconquerable.
In a statement released by Kensington Palace earlier this month it was confirmed that Prince Harry and his wife Meghan would travel to Sydney for the games as part of their honeymoon.
Corporal Sonya Newman, a servicewoman of two decades, will step up to the challenge and compete among 71 other Australian athletes but admits that challenge can sometimes be overwhelming.
Surgical complications cost Corporal Newman her leg and kept her in hospital for three of the first four years of her daughter's life.
It was a dizzyingly quick turnaround for her to dive headfirst into last year's games, just months after having her leg amputated.
"My boss at the time just gave me some paperwork and said, 'I think this will be helpful for you'," Corporal Newman said.
"I think I needed something that would give me that extra little bit of push," she said.
Corporal Newman said despite taking a gung-ho attitude to the 2017 games, nerves eventually took hold as she struggled to negotiate a steep learning curve with her swimming.
"I just came to the realisation that some things were actually challenging for me.
"Some days it got harder to get out of bed," she said.
Having been helped along the way by fellow athletes, she is keen to offer the same mentorship for new competitors at this year's event.
'It's given me a purpose'
A vehicle roll-over during a military exercise left Heidi Joosten with crippling chronic pain after 13 years in the Army.
"My rehab is ongoing, I was medically discharged last year, which I'm still trying to come to terms with, it's been quite challenging," she said.
"My injury is cervical disc bulges and muscular sprains and strains to my neck back and shoulder."
Joosten, who competed in the Toronto Games in athletics, believes sport is an important part of her rehabilitation, helping to reduce her perception of pain, and allowing her to feel connected with others.
"Being a part of the Invictus Games is motivating and inspiring, it's allowed myself and other veterans to be socially connected and it's given me a purpose and a goal to work towards," she said.
"It's about promoting sport for recovery."
Prince Harry came to Sydney last year to officially launch the countdown, and Joosten met the Prince at that event.
"I did meet him, but Mum spoke to him the whole time, I barely got a word in. But I was happy to stand there and shake his hand and stare at him," she said.
The first Invictus Games was held in 2014 in London, the second in 2016 in Orlando, the third took place in September 2017 in Toronto.
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