Duke of Sussex tries sit-skiing as he joins Invictus Games competitors in Canada

The Duke of Sussex has attempted sit-skiing as he joined Invictus Games competitors training in Canada to mark a year until the global sporting event.

Harry and the Duchess of Sussex met athletes at the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in British Columbia on Wednesday.

The couple plan to visit more competitors at the host locations for the 2025 competition – the winter sports town of Whistler and the city of Vancouver in western Canada.

Harry founded the Paralympic-style sporting competition in 2014 for injured and sick military personnel and veterans to aid their recovery.

At the Games next year around 550 competitors from up to 25 nations will compete in indoor adaptive events like sitting volleyball, swimming and wheelchair basketball, and for the first time winter sports like alpine skiing, snowboarding and wheelchair curling will be on the schedule.

Sit skis enable people who might usually use a wheelchair or find it difficult to stand for long periods to ski, both with and without assistance.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex with participant Rosa Sanchez Bermudez from Colombia at Whistler Blackcomb (Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025/Jeremy Allen/PA)PA Media - Jeremy Allen

The week has seen a flurry of announcements from the Sussexes with the duchess signing a deal with Lemonada Media to record new podcast shows, with the company also distributing her previous series.

Meghan’s Archetypes podcast about female stereotypes ran for just one series before her lucrative deal with Spotify ended in 2023.

The couple also relaunched their Archewell website, the name of their foundation, rebranding it as “The Office of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”.

Harry founded the Paralympic-style sporting competition in 2014 for injured and sick military personnel and veterans to aid their recovery (Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025/Jeremy Allen/PA)PA Media - Jeremy Allen

The launch of the site comes as the King’s slimmed-down monarchy has been put under pressure, with Charles postponing all public-facing duties due to his cancer diagnosis and the Princess of Wales out of action for the immediate future following abdominal surgery.

Harry, who lives in California with his wife and their two children – Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet – flew to the UK last week to meet with the King following his diagnosis.

He made the visit without Meghan and their children less than 24 hours after the announcement about Charles’ health was made to the nation by Buckingham Palace.

But there was no meeting with his brother, the Prince of Wales, after Harry spent around 45 minutes at Clarence House seeing their father.