Arctic Winter Games returned in grand fashion

The drums have stopped booming in the gyms and arenas.

The thwack of mittened applause has stilled along the race courses and snowy hills. Some 1,800 lovers of Northern sports are finding their way home from Wood Buffalo, Alta., following the 26th edition of the Arctic Winter Games (AWG).

For 13-year-old Northwest Territories Dene Games athlete Desiree Charlo, those drums are still echoing.

"The beat of the drums feels like it's inside of you, like there's nothing else and all you can hear is the drums," said Charlo.

Perhaps as she nears home, Charlo will also hear the quiet clinking of the gold ulu she won in hand games. It's been five long years since Team NWT's last win at the AWGs in Fort Smith, N.W.T., in 2018.

The Games were cancelled due to COVID in 2020, and postponed for the same reason in 2022. For young athletes around the polar region, it must have felt like their biggest multi-sport event would never return. And now of course, it has, come and gone in an instant.

The good news? It won't be such a long wait for the next one. The Matanuska borough, surrounding Anchorage, Alaska, will host the 2024 Arctic Winter Games. And the biennial celebration of sport, northern culture, and indigenous tradition will be back on track.

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For Nicole Clow, CEO of the 2023 Arctic Winter Games, "back on track" was key to this year's success. She had seen youth sport losing momentum during the AWG's hiatus.

"It had broken up a bit, the coaching continuity. We are all knocking the rust off. We extended some age eligibility so kids did not lose out … but that happened in all sports everywhere in the world, right?"

Right.

But northern communities also face a perennial shortage