Organizers of the seventh Invictus Games are looking to ignite heightened awareness and excitement in anticipation of the Vancouver Whistler 2025 Games.
Coinciding with the 200 day countdown until the Opening Ceremony in February 2025, the first of 10 giant signs were unveiled today near the Vancouver Olympic Cauldron at Jack Poole Plaza just outside Vancouver Convention Centre’s West Building.
All signs feature stacked words that read “I AM” as part of the organizing committee’s “I AM Vancouver Whistler 2025” campaign. A large QR code on the backside of each sign leads to more information about the Invictus Games.
With a height of eight feet, a width of 10 feet, a depth of six feet, and a weight of 976 lbs, the sign at Jack Poole Plaza is the largest of the 10 temporary signs that will be installed at landmark and highly prominent locations across Vancouver and Whistler over the coming weeks. This is also the only sign location with nighttime LED illumination.
The other nine signs are non-illuminated, each measuring eight feet in height, 10 feet in width, over three feet in depth, and under half the weight of the Jack Poole Plaza sign.
“I AM” sign for the Invictus Game Vancouver Whistler 2025 at Jack Poole Plaza. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
As a global athletic competition for wounded, sick, and injured service members and veterans, the Invictus Games epitomize the indomitable human spirit. “I AM” is the motto of the Invictus Games, inspired by the last two lines of the poem Invictus by English poet William Ernest Henley: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”
“There are unsung heroes among us all, wounded, injured and sick service members and Veterans who inspire us through their journey of shared recovery, hope, courage, and healing. I AM inviting people everywhere to get to know and join the Invictus family. Ask yourself: what is my I AM? What defines me?” said Scott Moore, CEO of the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025.
The signs were jointly designed by Four Host First Nations artists, Levi Nelson, Mack Paul, Ray Natraoro, and Olivia George. All signs are made from aluminum and painted yellow, one of the colours of the Invictus Games. The base of each sign features the Invictus Games’ Indigenous graphic identity.
Pattison ID manufactured all of the signs in Canada, with the illuminated sign built in New Brunswick and the remaining nine signs built in Vancouver Island.
“I AM” sign for the Invictus Game Vancouver Whistler 2025 at Jack Poole Plaza. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
“I AM” sign for the Invictus Game Vancouver Whistler 2025 at Jack Poole Plaza. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
In March 2024, Vancouver City Council also approved a member motion directing City of Vancouver staff to create a new permanent giant-lettered “VANCOUVER” sign, potentially in time for the Invictus Games and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The Invictus Games in Vancouver and Whistler will be held from Saturday, February 8, to Sunday, February 16, 2025.
Organizers are expecting up to 550 competitors from up to 25 nations in 11 adaptive sports, similar to the Paralympics. The 2025 Games will feature the sports of alpine skiing, snowboarding, indoor rowing, biathlon, nordic skiing, sitting volleyball, skeleton, swimming, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair curling, and wheelchair rugby.
This is the first-ever Invictus Games to feature winter sports in addition to a selection of summer sports.
It was announced earlier this summer that the Opening Ceremony will be held at BC Place Stadium, while the Closing Ceremony will be at Rogers Arena. Vancouver-based Patrick Roberge Productions, which staged the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony and has been behind the PNE Fair’s entertainment for decades, will produce the Invictus Games ceremonies.
The competition sports venues include the Vancouver Convention Centre, Hillcrest Centre, UBC Aquatics Centre, Whistler Blackcomb, Whistler Olympic Park, and Whistler Sliding Centre.
The Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 are supported by $15 million in funding from the Government of Canada’s Veterans Affairs Canada department and another $15 million from the Government of British Columbia.
Founded by Prince Harry, these Games for wounded veterans — staged once every two years in a different host city — were previously held at Dusseldorf in Germany in 2023 and will return to the United Kingdom at Birmingham in 2027. Toronto previously held the event in 2017.