Invictus Games reveals medals for upcoming Vancouver-Whistler event

The medals for the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver and Whistler are seen in this handout image.

The 2025 Invictus Games are just over a week away, and the medals athletes will compete to win have been unveiled.

Designed by Levi Nelson of the Lil’wat Nation, the gold, silver and bronze medals blend together visual elements of Coast Salish culture.

The symbols include a war paddle, the ancestral eye, and the triangle and wave of mountains and valleys. The medals’ outer edge emulates braided cedar rope.

The medals will be awarded to wounded, injured and sick military members and veterans from 23 countries gathering in Vancouver and Whistler to compete in adaptive sports.

“I’m hoping the legacy of these Winter Games will be that people remember the beauty of not just what it means to come together and to heal, but the beauty of this place that we live in because it’s truly magical,” Nelson said in a news release issued Wednesday.

“I think little bits of that can be seen in the medals. We are all connected through the heartbeat as one people in this universe. There’s a reason we’re all here at this exact moment and it’s so much bigger than us.”

The medals will be presented in Indigenous-made cedar Bentwood boxes, and each award comes with a unique bag knitted or crochet by an artist from one of the four host nations—Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Lil’wat.

Roughly 550 athletes will compete in 11 sports including skiing, snowboarding, volleyball, swimming, basketball and curling, in the seventh Invictus Games, from Feb. 8 to 16. Prince Harry founded the sporting event and has been making appearances in British Columbia over the past year to promote the games.

“Our Invictus Games are a celebration of the human spirit, and we thank all four host First Nations artists for bringing this to life. This year’s medals represent unity, courage, and victory,” the Duke of Sussex said in the release.

“We come together as a global community to honour the extraordinary strength, resilience, and brilliance of our competitors and their families for all they have overcome and where they are today. For many, victory is simply reaching the start line, and I, for one, am immensely proud of every single one of them.”

The Invictus Games kick off with an opening ceremony at BC Place Feb. 8 featuring Katy Perry, Noah Kahan and Nelly Furtado.