Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Have 'World Paying Attention' to Veterans Through Invictus Games (Exclusive)

"It was really nice to see them again," an Invictus Games alumni tells PEOPLE about reconnecting with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in Canada

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's spotlight on wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women through the Invictus Games is bringing their journey to the world.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been out and about for the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025's One Year to Go celebrations this week, and Invictus Games Team Canada alumni Major Joanna Labonté exclusively tells PEOPLE about what it was like to spend time together on Wednesday.

Labonté and her husband, Bert, caught up with Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, at the Whistler Sliding Center shortly after the Duke of Sussex braved the skeleton track to try one of the new winter sports debuting at the Invictus Games Vancouver-Whistler in February 2025.

"It was almost a reconnection because I had the opportunity to meet them in Düsseldorf as well, and they came to visit Team Canada, say hello to everyone and learn about what we were doing in the Games. So it was really nice to see them again, and they seem so generous and kind. We really believe as athletes and as veterans that Prince Harry and Meghan genuinely support what we do, and we will always be grateful for how they brought this visibility to the Invictus Games,” Labonté tells PEOPLE.

“It's such an important way because we feel like people are paying attention, that the world is paying attention, and that there's value in what we're doing by competing on the international scene in this kind of way. It really makes us feel like our commitment and our sacrifice to our country matters,” she adds. 

Labonté is an Army Public Affairs Officer, serving for 31 years, and competed in the 2023 Invictus Games in Germany in September 2023, where she won a gold medal in discus. She says that training for the Games was just what she needed as she imagined her next chapter outside of the Army.

“I never felt I was an athlete in my life, but I knew I needed something because I was medically released from the military with a mental health injury related to military sexual assault, and for me, I needed to find something where I would feel alive again, right? Military sexual trauma is really debilitating. It really affects your self-confidence and your ability to really understand where you fit into things,” she says.

Labonté got involved with the Soldier On program, which is an offshoot of the Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group working to aid the recovery of ill and injured Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans through sports and recreation.

The Soldier On team suggested she apply for the Invictus Games, and the rest is history. Labonté says she was “surprised” that she was accepted, and the training camps quickly became much more than practice.

“What I saw with the training camps, because we did several training camps throughout the year, was I saw my progression not just with my physical fitness or my skills in the sports that I played, which were discus, shot put, rowing and seated volleyball, but I saw a change in my self-confidence, and I also saw my ability to trust a fellow soldier, right? You know, I lost a lot of trust with what -

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's happened over my military career, and I was starting to gain that back, because this was Toronto, Canada, and we were all in it together,” she says.

“It's been a really amazing journey, and then the culminating point was going to the Games, bringing my family to the Games, and then competing. Wow, what a thrill, on an international scene with something I've never done,” she tells PEOPLE.

Labonté and her husband, who is also a serving member, traveled to the Invictus Games in Germany with their 15-year-old son Campbell, who is deaf-blind, where they supported her as she competed on the international stage.

“I remember when we threw the disc, I was number one, New Zealand was number two, a wonderful woman, and U.S. number three, also a wonderful woman, and the three of us were so happy for each other. And there's so many photos of us hugging and celebrating each other. Regardless of where we placed, we were just so happy for each other in that moment. That's the kind of feeling it is, we celebrate each other,” she says of the memory.

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As for what it means to have Prince Harry amplify and shine a light on the service personnel and veteran community through Invictus?

“To me, it means the world because what it does is it gives the participants a real feeling like we matter, that what we're doing and the sacrifices we made in our career is important. And he's redirecting the world's attention to us, right? We may feel forgotten, left out, disillusioned in our careers, in the end in some cases, but he's saying, ‘That's not your story. Your story is you're moving on, you're succeeding in life, you're succeeding in sport, and that's what's important.’ And we're listening to that message loud and clear, loud and clear.” 

Prince Harry, a former captain in the British Army, founded the international adaptive sports tournament for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans in 2014. Invictus means “unconquered” in Latin, and the competition’s motto “I am” comes from the William Ernest Henley poem of the same name, which ends with the lines, "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." 

“The poem is a reminder that you have the power to take control of your life," the Duke of Sussex told PEOPLE in 2022.

Following cycles in London (2014), Orlando (2016), Toronto (2017) and Sydney (2018), the Hague (when COVID-19 pushed the event back to 2022) and Düsseldorf (2023), the upcoming competition in Canada will be the first time the sports tournament has returned to a previous host country. The Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 will also be the first winter edition of the competition through the introduction of winter sports. 

Next February, athletes can go for the gold in alpine skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, Nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling for the first time, in addition to the core Invictus sports of indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, swimming, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and more.

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