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Prince Harry Says He Wouldn't Have Stayed in School If It Wasn't for One Thing

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Prince Harry was named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026 list for his work with the Invictus Games
The Duke of Sussex told the outlet, "If it wasn't for the sports field and the amount of sports that were on offer, there's no way I would have stayed in school"
Next up are the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, and Harry is set to visit the U.K. next month for the one-year countdown

Prince Harry is giving back to something that gave so much to him growing up.

The Duke of Sussex, 41, was named to TIME's 100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026 list along with LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Alysa Liu and more for his work with the Invictus Games, an adaptive sports contest for armed forces service personnel and veterans around the world. Harry told the outlet that the Invictus Games blended his desire to give back to veterans with his love of sports.

“Sport held me together," said Prince Harry, who grew up playing rugby, soccer, cricket, and polo.

"I was one of those kids at school who did not enjoy classroom work. If it wasn't for the sports field and the amount of sports that were on offer, there's no way I would have stayed in school," he added.

After attending the 2013 Warrior Games, a sports competition hosted by the U.S. Olympic Committee for wounded service members and veterans, Prince Harry — who served in the British Army for a decade, including two tours in Afghanistan — felt that more countries needed a similar outlet.

“I thought, ‘Wow, look at the power of sport, look at how it is literally changing lives in front of my very eyes,' " he said, according to TIME. "It was so clear to me. Let's invite as many countries as possible to make it international, because clearly more countries need to benefit from this."

The first Invictus Games took place in London in 2014, and they've since held the event in Orlando (2016), Toronto (2017), Sydney (2018), The Hague (2020 but delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic), Düsseldorf (2023) and Vancouver-Whistler (2025).

Next up are the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, which will welcome some 550 competitors from around 25 countries, and Prince Harry is set to visit the U.K. next month for the one-year countdown.

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Despite all the success, Prince Harry wants to continue to grow the Invictus Games and perhaps expand the one-week event to a longer one.

"One thing that we really celebrate at Invictus is not only do we change lives, but we save lives as well,” he told TIME. “That's not based on anything other than the amount of individuals that come up to me and say, ‘If it wasn't for Invictus, I would have killed myself.' "

To be amongst that community, those are the moments that I cherish,” he added. “You wish that every society, every community, had this same vibe about it.”

Prince Harry previously told PEOPLE about hitting the decade anniversary of the Games, "It’s amazing how after 10 years that we’re still doing this, that we still need to do this. We will continue the Games for as long as it's needed, and the need is increasing, rather than reducing. So the fact that there will be a full cycle back in 2027, back to the U.K. is a place that I never thought we would be."

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