Prince Harry a real winner at games for wounded vets

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Prince Harry a real winner at games for wounded vets

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - Escorted by Britain’s Prince Harry and swimming superstar Missy Franklin, a U.S. Navy officer blinded by a bomb in Afghanistan lit an Olympic-style cauldron Saturday to launch the Warrior Games for wounded service members.

Lt. Bradley Snyder, Harry and Franklin completed the last leg of a brief torch relay at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to formally start the games.

All three lifted the torch to the lip of the cauldron to ignite the flame.

It was a touching start to the Paralympic-style games, which run through Thursday. About 260 athletes are competing in basketball, volleyball, shooting, archery, track and field and swimming - Snyder’s sport.

Britain sent a 35-member team, and the prince met with the athletes earlier in the day. He also sat on a gymnasium floor in a circle of 12 sitting volleyball players, batting the ball around amid whoops and laughter.

Harry served as a combat helicopter pilot in Afghanistan, and British veterans said that makes him easy to talk to.

“He knows what it’s like out there,” said Army Capt. Dave Henson, a member of the volleyball team. “He’s been on the ground and in the air.”

Henson, 28, lost both legs when an improvised bomb exploded in Afghanistan two years ago. He said Harry took a personal interest in the athletes’ recovery.

Royal Marine Matthew Hancox, 25, said the prince recognized some wounded veterans he had met before and asked them how they were recovering. “He’s very down-to-earth,” said Hancox, who was shot in the chest in Afghanistan in 2011.

The prince on Saturday afternoon pulled a Union Jack jersey over his uniform and joined the British team in a raucous exhibition game of sitting volleyball against U.S. players.
AP
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