Prince Harry Announces Invictus Games 2025 Location — a Place with Special Meaning for Him and Meghan

Prince Harry’s Invictus Games are coming to Canada — again!

Ahead of the closing ceremony for the Invictus Games in The Hague on Friday, the Duke of Sussex revealed that the event is already looking to the future. It was previously announced that the 2023 Invictus Games will take place in Düsseldorf, Germany. Then in 2025, the next Invictus Games will return to North America to be held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada.

In 2017, the Invictus Games were held in Toronto, meaning the 2025 competition will mark the first time it has returned to a previous host country.

Not only are Vancouver and Whistler closer to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle now that they’ve relocated their family to California, but Vancouver is also a special spot for the couple. Before stepping back as senior members of the royal family in 2020, Harry and Meghan spent their first holiday season as a family of three in 2019 with son Archie on Vancouver Island.

“Meghan said it was beautiful,” Jamie Weare, from Ontario, said after the couple visited Canada House in London. “They seemed really relaxed and happy.”

The Invictus Games have previously been held in London in 2014, Orlando in 2016, Toronto in 2017 and Sydney in 2018.

In this week’s cover story, Prince Harry exclusively tells PEOPLE how the Invictus Games has inspired him over the years.

“The Invictus community has very much been a major part of my growth and learning. Creating the Games involved listening to military and veteran families—and hearing directly from them about their lives—and that offered so much perspective,” he says. “It’s been a lesson in serving a purpose greater than ourselves, and the benefit that comes from that extends to both the individual and community. I truly believe we are at our best when we’re in service to others, and Invictus is all about upholding that value.”