COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) ― Escorted by Britain’s Prince Harry and swimming superstar Missy Franklin, a U.S. Navy officer blinded by an improvised bomb in Afghanistan lit an Olympic-style cauldron to launch the Warrior Games for wounded service members.

Lt. Bradley Snyder, Harry and Franklin completed the last leg of a brief torch relay Saturday at the U.S. 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 and sat with 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.

“He’s very down-to-earth,” said Hancox, who was shot in the chest in Afghanistan in 2011.

A captain in Britain’s Army Air Corps, Harry has deployed to Afghanistan twice.

His first deployment, as a forward air controller in 2007-2008, was cut short after 10 weeks when details of his whereabouts were disclosed in the media. On his second deployment, he was a co-pilot and gunner on an Apache helicopter.

He acknowledged to reporters he had targeted Taliban fighters, and when asked if he had killed anyone, said, “Yeah, so, lots of people have.”

He’s attending the Colorado games because he believes the wounded deserve recognition, according to a statement from St. James’ Palace in London, the official residence of the royal family.

Harry caused a scandal on his last trip to the U.S. when he was photographed frolicking nude with an unidentified woman in a Las Vegas hotel suite in August.

“It was probably a classic example of me probably being too much army, and not enough prince,” he said afterward.