The Invictus Games – what now?

RIDING OUT THE DISAPPOINTMENT & FOCUSING ON THE POSITIVE

By Sharon Lundy

Covid-19 might have forced the postponement of this year’s Invictus Games but NZDF team member Staff Sergeant Lindsay Thomas has no regrets about being part of the 2020 team.

The Invictus Games The Hague 2020 were scheduled for May 9–16 but have been postponed until May 29 – June 5 2021, and there’s a good chance it could be virtual.

The NZDF team held a Reconnect+Reset camp at Base Auckland from August 7–9, and SSGT Thomas said it was great to be together again.

“It’s about the team and the connections and the togetherness. It’s about the journey. If it’s virtual, so what, we’re still a team,” he said.

“To share your stories is probably the thing.”

SSGT Thomas’ story is one he has carried for 29 of the 31 years he has served.

“During a night exercise in 1991, with no lights, a Scorpion tank that I was driving went over a 30 foot cliff in Waiouru. The Crew Commander, Sergeant Hohepa Timutimu, was killed. I had one night in hospital for observation and then one week later was put back into a tank to drive,” he said. “This accident has lived with me ever since. It cut deep but it wasn’t the done thing to say you were struggling back then. I still have issues driving at night and have struggled personally for all these years.”

On top of that, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer two years ago and had a 7cm tumour removed, along with his kidney, and has had the all clear although is still regularly scanned.

SSGT Thomas said news of the Games’ cancellation was initially crushing, especially as he was down for an operational deployment next year which meant he would miss the rescheduled Games.

During lockdown he changed his fitness focus from competitor to operational, getting out his webbing and preparing for the combat fitness test and pack marching.

“But once we got back to work I got word that Defence Health had pulled all deployment nominees with a medical waiver attached, which was me, so decision made,” he said.

“That meant I was available for the Games again. As one door closes another opens.”

Fellow Invictus team member Warrant Officer Class 2 Jared Davidson has also changed his focus since lockdown, deciding to concentrate on operational fitness rather than Invictus fitness.

A number of physical injuries, including crushing his thumb in a logsplitter, contributed to WO2 Davidson being diagnosed with depression in 2017. In 2018 he was diagnosed with melanoma; he needed two surgeries as it had spread from the initial site to his lymph nodes. Being named in the team for the 2020 Games was supposed to be a turning point, but he took on too many events and ended up in worse shape thanks to a number of injuries.

“So I’m actually glad I’ve got a whole extra year of training up my sleeve. A few of us have had this, saying we’re glad we’ve got longer to be better but disappointed we didn’t get to go.

“Since coming out of lockdown I’ve decided I’m not going to concentrate on Invictus, I’m going to concentrate on becoming fit again, and working on the operational fitness.

“So let’s focus on that first, which will aid in any sort of fitness for Invictus, and then I can enhance it from there. It gives me a straight goal.”

For two-time breast cancer survivor and team co-captain Captain Buffy Little, lockdown was a bit of a drawn out affair; she, her wife and her mother-in-law were on a Pacific cruise when the world started shutting down.

“The cruise was just around the sea in the end. It was meant to go to New Caledonia and we were meant to have a number of stops there and around Vanuatu. Thanks to all things Covid we only ended up getting off in Noumea for a day.”

They went straight into selfisolation when they got home and were a week and a half in when the country went into lockdown.

CAPT Little said it was inevitable that the Games would be postponed so it didn’t bother her too much. She struggled more when it got to the week the team was supposed to leave for The Hague.

“For me it was about riding it out. I had a couple of days where I was

SSGT Lindsay Thomas

WO2 Jared Davidson training with the help of PTI and Invictus trainer/coach Matthew Reid.

pretty flat so I just acknowledged it and focused on the here and the now and the things you can control,” she said.

“But this camp has been fantastic. It’s been a good opportunity to reset, to bring everyone back together, to say ‘this still is a thing, we’re still doing it’.”

The NZDF Invictus Games team is supported by Fulton Hogan and Dynasty.