Invictus Games – the logistics behind the event Prince Harry founded

The logistics of delivering a week-long international sporting event across Sydney – involving 660 competitors from 18 nations, 800 media, 1300 volunteers and 100,000 spectators – are mindbogglingly complex. And that’s without adding the most famous pregnant woman on the planet to the mix.

But it’s literally all in a day’s work for Michael Hartung, the chief delivery officer for the Sydney Invictus Games, which will begin with an opening ceremony at the Opera House on Saturday night, to be attended by expectant parents Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The fourth yearly Invictus Games – an adaptive sports event for wounded, injured and ill active and veteran service personnel founded by Prince Harry in 2014 – are being held mainly at Sydney Olympic Park, home of the 2000 Olympics, as well as on and around the iconic Sydney Harbour.

Hartung, the former head of sport and interim chief executive officer of the Australian Paralympic Committee, is responsible for delivering “all aspects of the actual Games”.

“That’s everything from logistics, transport and catering to accommodation and ceremonies, all the sporting and other venues and the competition itself,” he says.

It’s a gargantuan job which involves countless contracts and agreements with commercial operators, not-for-profits, the defence community and government departments; from hotel chains to train operators to private security firms and catering firms … and everything else in between.

Hartung has a “full-time staff of 100 in the delivery space”, but staff employed by existing contractors at venues such as the Genea Netball Centre, Qudos Bank Arena and Quaycentre at Olympic Park will deliver additional capacity. As will 1300 volunteers from all over Australia, who must cover their own costs, but have been kitted out by KingGee Workwear.

Prince Harry meets Invictus Games competitors in Sydney last year during the launch of the games. Picture: Getty

About 1100 athletes and support people will be housed in a cluster of three Accor Property Group hotels at Olympic Park, rather than in purpose-built accommodation as is customary for larger events, like Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

Then there’s the “mixed and varied” venues and sites, which range from Cockatoo Island to the Royal Botanic Gardens and hockey, athletic and tennis centres at Olympic Park, as well as private industry locations.

“Of the 25 venues we have, about half are sporting – ranging in capacity from 800 to 15,000 – and there we’ve tapped into existing contractors, like Gema Catering for example, to deliver things like food service, cleaning, waste and security,” Hartung says.

“For every commercial operator, we’ve been able to negotiate a rate specially for the Games, as we’re a registered charity,” he says.

Game On Down Under from Invictus Games Sydney 2018 on Vimeo.

The Games also have two 5000-sqaure metre sites, The Dome at Olympic Park, which will act as a pseudo athlete’s village, where competitors will eat and socialise and another on Parramatta Road, to be used as a warehouse.

“The Dome is really a blank canvas for us and it will operate a full dining hall operation – serving 52,000 specially-designed meals for 660 competitors and their support staff and 1200 family and friends members. It also has a medical clinic, kids’ play area, space for our own workforce; a bit of a central point for everyone.

“All competitors and support staff will get three meals a day at The Dome, and family and friends, who are staying mainly in the CBD, will have access to two meals a day too.

“At Parramatta Road, a Goodman’s site is our multi-use warehouse, for everything from the medals, which have been delivered under security from the Royal Australian Mint, to all sorts of equipment, flooring, signage … everything we need to run the Games,” Hartung says.

Australia and the USA compete in wheelchair rugby at the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto. Picture: Invictus Games

As well as “bumping in and out” sites across Greater Sydney over the course of eight days, Hartung has the added pressure of hosting the royal couple.

“With the royals, it’s everything that comes with them you have to consider. With officials and other dignitaries, there is a process to follow, but with the royal couple they come complete with an advance party, a bigger contingent when they’re at a venue and of course the media that goes along with that.

“All areas of venue operations are affected; you have to consider when they’re arriving, how they’re arriving, when they’ll move and help support all that. The spin-off, of course, is the terrific profile they bring to what the Invictus Games are all about,” Hartung says.

And that’s the fighting spirit of wounded, injured and ill servicemen and women.