- The 2025 Invictus Games are taking place in Whistler and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is a nine-day adaptive sports competition held from Feb 8-16.
- Team U.S. consists of 50 injured, ill and wounded veterans and service members. They will compete along with 500 other athletes from across more than 20 nations.
- Straight Arrow News spoke with five members of Team U.S. as they prepared for the games: Retired Marine Corps Sgt. Lydia Figary, retired Master Chief Hospital Corpsman Steve Flemming, retired Air Force Col. Jacqui Marty, retired Special Operations Command Master Sgt. Ivan Morera, and retired Army Spc. Michael Villagran.
Full Story
The Super Bowl may be in the rearview mirror, but another global sporting event is still underway: The Invictus Games. It’s a multi-day competition that brings people together from around the world who all share a passion to conquer any obstacle in their way.
We have your invitation to meet the incredible and unstoppable athletes who make up Team U.S. Straight Arrow News got to speak with five veterans of the armed forces as they prepared for the games.
The Invictus Games: A life-changing event
British Columbia, Canada, is home to nearly six million people, and it’s welcoming a few more visitors this week — a few hundred more.
For nine days, over 500 athletes from over 20 nations are gathering in Canada’s westernmost province to embark on the grueling, heart-pounding, empowering competition.
The Invictus Games were launched over a decade ago by Prince Harry.
The first Invictus Games took place in London at the Copper Box Arena, Olympic Park in 2014.
Invictus showcases the skills and determination of wounded, ill and injured veterans, and active-duty service members, as they compete, push boundaries and bond in a life-changing event.
And life-changing is an all-too-familiar term for these competitors, including the 50 athletes representing Team U.S.
Invictus Team U.S.: Retired Marine Corps Sgt. Lydia Figary’s story
Twenty-seven-year-old Pennsylvania native retired Marine Corps Sgt. Lydia Figary entered the military following in her older brother’s footsteps.
“When I was 12 years old, my older brother Samuel joined the Marine Corps. I went to his graduation. Little 12-year-old Lydia was like, ‘That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,’” Figary said. “It was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to join the military. My dad was in the military, just a big military family, (also) my grandparents.”
Figary, a parachute rigger, had been stationed in Okinawa, Japan. She was reveling in the brotherhood and sisterhood of her unit and ready for her next mission when, in July 2022, one moment changed everything.
“My job was jumping, and I had the opportunity to be on a jump package in Texas. And I had just passed freefall school so I could jump on my own. I loved freefall. But I was on a tandem jump,” Figary explained. “It was a night jump. We just had a freak accident. When we came down, it was at night, so we couldn’t see very well. And when we hit the ground, we hit the side of a ditch. So we tumbled forward, and my legs got caught under us, and I had a tib-fib open fracture and [traumatic brain injury].”
Retired Army Spc. Michael Villagran’s story
For retired Army Spc. Michael Villagran, it was craving a change in his life’s path that redirected him to the military.
“It was a bigger sense of purpose, bigger comradery. I’ve always been into sports all my life, so that team aspect is there in the military, and it’s something that I just fell in love with,” Villagran said.
The now 33-year-old loved being part of the airborne infantry, saying it was like a home away from home. But a short time after enlisting, a mission far from his Houston hometown would lead him on yet another path, one that tested his fortitude and spirits.
“Unfortunately, in 2012 when I deployed to Afghanistan, I stepped on an IED on a rooftop, which I ended up going into limb salvage for four years and eventually getting an amputation,” Villagran told Straight Arrow News.
Retired Master Chief Hospital Corpsman Steve Flemming’s story
Fellow Texan 38-year-old Steve Flemming rose to the rank of Master Chief Hospital Corpsman in the Navy and was able to travel the world.
“I served in combat in Afghanistan. I’ve been to most of the countries in the Middle East. I’ve been to more countries in the Middle East than I haven’t,” Flemming said. “I’ve been to Korea and Germany. I’ve been to a couple places in Africa. I’ve been to 42 of the states.
“My last duty assignment was with Marine Corps Forces Central Command. I was working for a two-star general. So all Marine Corps operations in the Middle East fell under our command.”
Then came his life-changing moment. It, however, was not in combat but in his own body. In January 2018, Flemming was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).
“That was hard,” Flemming said. “That was not something I expected, or even really knew. I knew what it was, but it’s not something you’re Googling or learning about. Completely had to turn my world upside down.”
Now in a personal battle with MS, Flemming did not want it to end his military career. So he proved to the Navy that he still had what it took to defend the country.
He pressed on, going on overseas missions, leading others, fueling them to find their greatness, or, as he likes to say, “stoke the fire.”
But in a twist of fate, life was not done giving Flemming battles to fight.
“Come January 2023, I was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer,” Flemming said. “That, ultimately, was one too many things for the Navy.”
For Team U.S. co-captains, retired Special Operations Command Master Sgt. Ivan Morera, 51, and retired Air Force Col. Jacqui Marty, 57, leadership was earned.
Retired Air Force Col. Jacqui Marty’s story
It was a friend learning to fly that gave Marty the inspiration, but once at the Air Force Academy, she met her first hurdle — being a woman at a time when, as she described it, “women were a novelty.”
“There were quite a lot of people who did not want us there,” Marty said. “It was tough. I’m not going to lie. When people don’t want you there, it’s difficult. So from a very early age, I became an overachiever.
“Just doing your best isn’t good enough. You have to do even better than your best because otherwise you’re being judged as not being good enough.”
Marty’s military career would see her piloting nine different Air Force aircraft as she flew past any and all barriers in her way up the ranks. But it was on a drive with her then 5-year-old son in 2015 during temporary duty in Texas where her track to being promoted to general took a turn.
God’s laughing when you’re making plans, right?
Retired Air Force Col. Jacqui Marty
The mom and son were on their way to honor the 49th Fighter Bomber Group from World War II when her life-changing moment happened.
“A young woman was texting and driving, doing 70 miles an hour, I was almost stopped, and she rear-ended me,” Marty recalled. “And I don’t remember anything after that point.”
“My son was in the backseat,” Marty continued. “He had little wings on his car seat. He was my hero. He was able to tell the first responders our names, where we’re going, unlock my cellphone so they could call my husband. He did fantastic in the moment. I was really proud of him.
“God’s laughing when you’re making plans, right?” Marty said.
Retired Special Operations Command Master Sgt. Ivan Morera’s story
For Morera, after going to college for physical education, he chose to pursue a military career over becoming a wrestling and judo coach.
“My family is somewhat of a military family,” Morera said. “My family immigrated from South America to the United States, and it started with my uncle; he joined the Navy, went to Vietnam. (My) older cousins joined the Navy and Army. My brother was a Marine for 20 years.”
Early on, while in the 7th Special Forces Group, he was deployed to the Middle East as the war on terror got underway.
Around a decade later, Morera, now a senior medical sergeant, was driving in an American convoy during a high-value target mission in Afghanistan. That’s where the Green Beret encountered a Taliban insurgent on a motorcycle.
“The Taliban insurgent came up to me. I could see the imprint of a suicide vest,” Morera said. “So I moved away from him. I let my team sergeant know this is what’s going on. I moved away from him, and he followed me. I came off the road. When I came back on the road, the vehicle was shaking, lost control and the vehicle flipped four times.”
Morera’s hand was crushed between the road and the vehicle.
“I called out to my team sergeant,” Morera continued. “He unbuckled himself, put a tourniquet on me, tried to pull me out, but he realized I still had tissue connected, so he called in my junior medic, who jumped in. He came in and said, ‘Ivan, I have to cut your hand off. We have to get you out of here.’ I was like, ‘OK. Do what you got to do.’”
Overcoming the odds
These American service members attest that an injury — no matter how severe — can only define you if you let it. And despite the pain and the emotional toll, they were not willing to give in.
“At first, it’s hard to find the positive,” Figary said. “At first, it was like everything had been taken from me. I loved my job. I loved packing parachutes, and I loved jumping, but after my accident, it was really hard for me.”
“When I first stepped on the IED, I didn’t know where my life was going to be,” Villagran said. “I still had my leg, but they had to do reconstruction on my ankle and my heel. And just the unknown was scary. The not knowing. The doctors couldn’t tell me what my life was going to be like.”
“Honestly, a good day might be getting out of bed and brushing my teeth,” Marty said. “And going from an extreme overachiever, high-accomplishing individual, to barely able to take care of my basic, personal needs, let alone that of my family, it took me to a really dark place.”
“Man, at first, it was rough,” Morera said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do. How am I going to support my family? What does my family think of me? What does my team think of me? What’s going to happen?’”
Flemming, while battling MS and a rare form of cancer, tried to find a way to take control of his narrative, which is not an easy mountain to climb.
But neither is climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
And that is exactly what he did just months after his cancer diagnosis after receiving a call from a friend, a retired general, with an offer of a lifetime.
He’s like ‘I got one seat left. Fully funded. Do you want it?’
Retired Master Chief Hospital Corpsman Steve Flemming
“‘I got one seat left for a fully funded climb of Mount Kilimanjaro.’ He’s like, ‘with 10 other veterans. We’re taking 10 disabled veterans up Kilimanjaro.’” Flemming recalled. “He’s like, ‘I got one seat left. Fully funded. Do you want it?’
“It ended up becoming the thing to break any sort of negative cycle, and it was the thing to regain control of my life on my terms and not let this dictate how things are going to go. So in August of ‘23, I summited Mount Kilimanjaro.”
What is your Mount Kilimanjaro?
Flemming likes to ask people, “What is your Mount Kilimanjaro?” As in — what motivates you?
It was an analogy echoed by Prince Harry during the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games in Vancouver.
Invictus didn’t save you. You saved yourself.
Prince Harry
“Over the past decade, I’ve lost count of the times we’ve heard you tell us that the Invictus Games saved you. Respectfully, I disagree,” Harry said. “Invictus didn’t save you. You saved yourself. It was you who pushed through the doubt and despair. You, who summited your own mountain and brought us along with you.
“It was you who kept going even when you didn’t think you had any more to give. We didn’t do that. You did.”
For these Team U.S. competitors, the first mountain was the Warrior Games. That’s the Department of Defense’s adaptive sports competition, and was the catalyst for Prince Harry to create the Invictus Games.
In 2013, Prince Harry attended the Warrior Games.
After the amputation, as soon as Michael Villagran found out about adaptive sports, he took it on head-on — literally, by finding sports such as skeleton.
“As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to be part of this,” Villagran said. “This is something I want to do. And when I first tried out and did my first Warrior Games, I fell in love. To be part of a Team U.S. again, just to represent the Army, to represent your country again. To be able to do it with other disabled veterans like myself.”
“I could not see any good from my accident,” Figary told Straight Arrow News. “It just took it away from me. I didn’t know if I’d ever jump again. Things started to change when I got into adaptive sports. It was like, ‘Wow. I still can do things. I still can compete. I still can push myself.’”
Morera said, “When you’re first injured, when you first got sick, you’re lying in that hospital bed feeling sorry for yourself. But once you’re introduced to adaptive sports, you start to develop this confidence in you that ‘I can do this.’”
“You can’t keep climbing Kilimanjaro,” Flemming admitted. “I needed something to sink my teeth into. I need something to find what’s next. And adaptive sports came around.”
“Finally in 2018, I went to my first event, and it was life-changing, to be honest,” Marty said. “Not only were the sports therapeutic for me because I tend to be just a little bit competitive. I loved that aspect. It felt I was doing what I was comfortable doing, competing and trying my best at whatever I do, but the network of people was absolutely amazing.”
What is Team U.S. looking forward to the most?
While these competitive athletes hope to win gold during the games, it’s the camaraderie, not only from their fellow Americans, but also from players around the world, that they cherish most about Invictus.
And that camaraderie can motivate the team to reach even higher.
“To meet all these people who have been through similar things or, obviously, way worse, everyone’s story is different,” Figary said. “But we could relate to ‘you can’t give up, you got to keep going’ and the adaptive sports have just played a huge part in that for me.”
“We’re about to connect globally to people that wanted to serve, and they’re overcoming their thing, whatever it is,” Flemming said. “And they’re there to compete, and I’m really excited to see that and join that energy group and contribute to that. And if anyone sees it, anyone watches, anyone reads this, that’s why I’ve been so open to talk about it; if it helps one or two people, if someone draws from that, then maybe they can do something.”
“It’s not just the athletic events. It’s building friendships with other countries, whether it’s the Brits, the Aussies, the Kiwis, the French, the Italians, the Polish or whoever it might be,” Morera said. “I want to get to know their stories of recovery so I can understand what they’ve been through, and maybe utilize some of what they used for myself as well, and hopefully it can be vice versa where they hear my story and how I’ve adapted, I’ve dealt with certain things, they might be able to use what I’ve done.”
We’re competing, but we’re not competing against these other nations. I feel we’re competing with them, if that makes sense.
Retired Air Force Col. Jacqui Marty
Villagran, who was appointed U.S. flag bearer for the opening ceremonies, is participating in the most events out of the team, and he still has the mindset he had during his Warrior Games.
“Who cares about these medals? I’m having such a great time that I’m just happy to be here. If the medal comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it’s OK. I still had a great time, met some great people, and had a great experience,” Villagran said.
Just days after his SAN interview, Villagran’s excitement and will earned him a silver medal in wheelchair basketball at Invictus.
First Invictus Games with adaptive winter sports
This year’s Invictus Games is special, as it’s the first to include adaptive winter sports. And if there’s one particular event Team U.S. is looking forward to the most, it’s skeleton.
“I’m really excited about [skeleton] cause I got a thing for speed,” Morera said.
“I call it my astronaut moment in the sense. I’m from Texas; when else I am going to get the opportunity. I pushed very hard to get a seat in skeleton,” Flemming said.
“In the Army, my job was airborne infantry, so I’m kind of used to that speed, that adrenaline, so to me, skeleton was just hand in hand,” Villagran said.
“I describe it to my son; it’s the most sensory-intense roller coaster ride you have ever experienced,” Marty said.
The new winter sports: Alpine skiing and snowboard, Nordic skiing, biathlon, skeleton and wheelchair curling.
The support of family
Along their journeys, they had the support of their leaders, fellow service members and their families.
“My wife is the rock of our family. She’s probably the strongest person I’ve ever met,” Morera said. “For, you know, to hear my kids say, ‘Dad, you’re my hero.’ What dad doesn’t want to hear that? They mean a lot to me.
“But I will say this. Because of my injury, I’m a better father, a better husband and just a better person in general. Before I was injured, I was very arrogant and cocky. This injury humbled me, and I had to start all over. I had to learn how to do things all over again. It humbled me. I wasn’t as cool as I thought, but I’m going to be a better person because of this.”
Figary is sharing this special time with her parents.
“They are coming to Canada. It’s their first time ever leaving the country. They got their passports for it, and they are really excited,” Figary said. “They’ve been through a lot. My accident. I had to move back home and be taken care of by my mom. She flew out for my surgeries and stuff, so they’re really invested in this, too.”
Villagran is teaching life lessons to his three young girls.
“I’m trying to teach my kids to never give up, always continue going forward no matter what struggles you have,” Villagran said. “No matter what you’re going through mentally, you can break through. Be relentless, nonstop; just keep going after it, and never quit.”
Marty, whose call sign is “Katniss” due to her archery skills, shares her victories with her husband, her youngest son, whose adoption lifted her spirits after her accident, and her oldest son, who just may be next in the family to fly high in the Air Force.
“He wants to be a pilot and wants to do all these things. I think he’s seeing what’s possible even at my age,” Marty said.
It was Flemming’s wife who pushed him to defeat one of his toughest physical obstacles.
“My wife was a big push for doing Kilimanjaro. The kids saw that, and I hope they can see that even when things got really hard or bleak, Dad went on and did his thing,” Flemming said.
‘I AM READY’
After facing the unimaginable, these veterans and service members are taking a bold step in their recovery and acceptance of their life-changing moments. They’re choosing to create new life-changing moments, this time on their own terms.
The slogan for this iteration of the Invictus Games is “I Am.” And these Team U.S. warriors are finishing that phrase with one word: “Ready.”
“This is an incredible opportunity that we’re doing the first winter games,” Marty said. “I’m really privileged to take part in them. I think that’s really exciting.”
“We all are going through this same process,” Villagran said. “All of us are these injured veterans, and we’re all going through this same thing, so we can connect on a deeper level than just, ‘Hey, this is the U.S., this is Canada.’ We come together as one.”
“Obviously, winning would be huge. But it’s not the end all be all. It’s about the comradery. It’s about what sports does for healing,” Figary said. “And if I don’t get a medal at Invictus, for me, that’s not my goal; my goal is just building friendships and trying to help people realize this is so important for your healing.”
Just days after her interview with Straight Arrow News, Figary won silver in the women’s novice Alpine snowboarding event.
“Whatever situation you might be in, it doesn’t define who you are. It’s who are you as a person. Your character. Your integrity. Your heart. Who you are that defines you,” Morera said. “You always got to be willing to move forward. Never give up on yourself because there are people in our lives that need us in their life, so we have to continue to move forward not just for ourselves, but for them.”
These members of Team U.S. hope their involvement with winter sports will open more doors for injured veterans to reach the Paralympics.
The 2025 Invictus Games’ closing ceremony is on Feb. 16. Musical acts like country star Jelly Roll, rockers Barenaked Ladies, and singer-songwriter duo The War and Treaty will perform.
But after hearing the stories of these American service members, there is no question who the stars truly are at these games.
