The 2018 Invictus Games are currently being held in Sydney, Australia. Sage is a Premier Partner of the games, and several members of the Orchid team were lucky enough to attend a reception at Sydney Olympic Park last Friday, where Kerry Agiasotis, Executive Vice President of Sage Asia Pacific, presented gifts to the team captains.
The Invictus Games were the brainchild of their patron, the Duke of Sussex, better known as Prince Harry. They were first held in London in 2014, followed by stagings in Orlando 2016 and Toronto 2017. 18 nations are represented by 500 competitors at the Sydney games.
Harry, who saw active service with the British army in Afghanistan, was moved to create the inaugural event after attending the Warrior Games in the US in 2013.
Prince Harry saw the positive impact sport could have on the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded, injured and ill servicemen and women.
Invictus is Latin for 'unconquered', and the inspiration for the naming of the Games comes from a poem written in 1875 by English poet, critic and editor William Ernest Henley.
Henley was well qualified to write about personal hardship, having spent much of his life suffering from tuberculosis, a condition that resulted in the amputation of his left leg in his 20th year, and claimed his life at the age of 53. By all accounts, he lived a life true to the spirit of his poem, full of endeavour, achievement, and boisterous good humour.
Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
