Invictus Games Closing Ceremony - Sydney 2018

Now I am not one for ceremony, nor am I one to support sporting events. Generally I despise things, however I am a huge fan of Prince Harry and was absolutely gutted when he married Meghan Markle (because you know, there goes my chance of being with him).

Anyway, it was announced that Prince Harry and his pregnant wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex would be touring both Australia and New Zealand for the Invictus Games which were held at Sydney's Olympic Park.

It's extremely hard to find the time to travel around the city on the off chance that one might spot the Royals so I made a decision to purchase a ticket to the Closing Ceremony of the Invictus Games, and I snapped up an amazing A reserve seat. I was in row 10 of the grandstand, seated a couple of rows behind Estonia and next to the military representatives from Australia. You can't get much better than that unless you're a VIP, which sadly, I'm not yet.

The Closing Ceremony was brilliant. It was live broadcast on the ABC and had performers including Australian singer, Colin Hay, rock group Birds of Tokyo, The Kingdom Choir and many others.

The atmosphere was absolutely incredible with speeches from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the Governor General of NSW, David Hurley and of course, the Invictus Games founder, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

The Closing Ceremony paid tribute to the competitors from the 15 participating nations and the crowd was incredibly enthusiastic, standing for all the competitors, and standing for both Prince Harry and Meghan.

Meghan spoke about resilience and not letting adversity stop you from living your life. She spoke about courage and not letting your circumstances get you down. She spoke of how she'd met with soldiers prior to meeting Prince Harry and she spoke of the general camaraderie throughout the games.

Later in the evening, Prince Harry spoke about how soldiers are the real heroes, that sportsmen aren't heroes (which I've always agreed with and said). He spoke about the importance of mental health and that people should be open and free with what they're feeling. He acknowledged his own struggle with mental illness and that people shouldn't be ashamed of what they're feeling. He said that mental health is more important even than physical health. I don't necessarily agree with this because the two go hand in hand. If you're mentally well then you'll be physically well but it also works in reverse as well.

You simply cannot have one without the other and they're both equally important. It was clear that both he, and Meghan were incredibly proud of the "mateship" to use Prince Harry's word and that they were pleased with the way all the competitors and volunteers treated eachother in the games.

The next Invictus Games are being held in 2020 in the Netherlands.

Here are a few photo highlights from the closing ceremony last night.