Prince Harry, injured US officer launch Warrior Games

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - Combat helicopter pilot Prince Harry of Britain along with Olympic swimming champion Missy Franklin joined an American naval officer who had been blinded in Afghanistan in launching the Warrior Games for wounded service members.

Britain's Prince Harry prepares to throw a football at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 12, 2013. The Warrior Games, which takes place at the academy, is a Paralympic-style competition featuring injured servicemen and women from the US, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. [Photo/Agencies]

Lt. Bradley Snyder, Harry and Franklin lifted a torch Saturday to ignite an Olympic-style cauldron, after completing the last leg of a brief torch relay at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to formally start the games.

It was a touching start to the Paralympic-style games, which run through Thursday. About 260 athletes are competing in basketball, volleyball, shooting, archery, track and field and swimming - Snyder's sport.

Britain sent a 35-member team, and the prince met with the athletes earlier in the day. He also sat on a gymnasium floor in a circle of 12 sitting volleyball players, batting the ball around amid whoops and laughter.

Harry served as a combat helicopter in pilot in Afghanistan, and the British veterans said that makes him easy to talk to.

"He knows what it's like out there," said Army Capt. Dave Henson, a member of the volleyball team. "He's been on the ground and in the air."

Henson, 28, lost both legs when an improvised bomb exploded in Afghanistan two years ago. He said Harry took a personal interest in the athletes' recovery and the quality of their health care.

Royal Marine Matthew Hancox, 25, said the prince recognized some wounded veterans he had met before and asked them how they were recovering.

"He's very down-to-earth," said Hancox, who was shot in the chest in Afghanistan in 2011.

The prince on Saturday afternoon pulled a Union Jack jersey over his uniform and joined the British team in a raucous exhibition game of sitting volleyball against US players. That delighted the audience of several hundred and prompted a string of teasing taunts from the arena announcer.

Britain's Prince Harry plays sitting volleyball with members of the British Warrior Games team in a gymnasium, before the opening of the Warrior Games at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 11, 2013. The Warrior Games is a Paralympic-style competition featuring injured servicemen and women from the US, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. [Photo/Agencies]