War-disabled athletes compete in the “Invincible” Games in Düsseldorf. For the Ministry of Defense, the games are an event, for critics they are an overpriced family sports festival – financed by taxpayers’ money.
“I think this entire event is superfluous and unnecessary”says André Hahn, the sports policy spokesman for the Bundestag parliamentary group “The Left”, in an interview with Sportschau. Through a small inquiry to the federal government, Hahn found out that Invictus Games in Düsseldorf (09.09.-16.09.23) cost the taxpayer a mid-double-digit million sum. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Defense.
The Invictus Games are an international sporting event lasting several days for soldiers who have suffered permanent physical and mental impairments due to wounds, injuries or illness. However, there are only 500 participants in Düsseldorf, 37 of them from Germany.
In addition, the sporting achievements are highly questionable compared to other sporting events such as the Paralympics, said left-wing politician Hahn. Significantly better sporting results would usually be achieved there. That’s why the Invictus Games are nothing more than a better family sports festival. “You’re throwing away 40 million for this. I can’t understand that at all and that’s why I really strictly reject this event.”says Hahn.
Department of Defense: “Appreciation priceless”
For the Ministry of Defense as the organizer, however, the games are an event to sensitize and inform society about the price of peace and security. At the request of the sports show, the ministry writes: “The appreciation that the games can express for the rehabilitation of veterans, their families and friends is priceless.”
The Invictus Games were initiated by Prinz Harry, who himself fought as a British soldier in Afghanistan. The idea follows the approach that sport is the best rehabilitation measure for reintegration into normal life. Competitions are held in ten sports: archery, weightlifting, athletics, cycling, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby, rowing, swimming, sitting volleyball, table tennis.
after the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin, the World Dwarf Games for people of short stature in Cologne and the inclusive canoe world championships in Duisburg, the Invictus Games are the fourth important international sporting event for people with disabilities in Germany this year. That is why the German Disabled Sports Association welcomes the games, as they would ensure public awareness.
Hahn criticizes the image campaign
The Bundeswehr and the city of Düsseldorf organize the event together. The motto: “A Home for Respect”. According to the Federal Ministry of Defense, the focus of the games is on competitors who want to achieve a new place in life with their courage to live despite severe impairments. The aim of the games is, among other things, to support the participants in their rehabilitation and to bring the concerns and fate of soldiers injured in action to the public.
For André Hahn from the party DIE LINKE, which describes itself as fundamentally pacifist, this is a legitimate aspect. However, not in the context of such games. Mainly because there is a lack of money for rehabilitation sports in this country, says Hahn: “And in that respect that’s really the point of criticism that it’s ultimately about an image campaign, also partly about advertising for the Bundeswehr.”
The Federal Ministry of Defense notes that the participants dutifully paid a high price by using their physical and psychological integrity to fulfill their mission.
participants contrary to international law Get?
In its answers to Hahn’s small question, the federal government was unable to say whether participants from other countries had been involved in wars that violated international law. Nor how many of the 37 participants from Germany acquired their injuries as a result of a military deployment abroad. Hahn is therefore calling on Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to withdraw his patronage of the games.
The Federal Ministry of Defense refers to the sporting regulations of the Invictus Games. Recording and differentiating according to when, how and where the injury to the participants occurred is therefore irrelevant both for inclusion in the German team and generally for participation in the Invictus Games.
It is the second edition of the Invictus Games since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. According to the federal government’s response to the minor inquiry, the Invictus Games have not yet made a decision on how to deal with war veterans from Russia and Belarus.