Learn how the seal kick, the iconic Labrador Winter Games event, got its name

When Charlotte Coombs was approached by the Labrador Winter Games committee 40 years ago to commission a piece for an event, she says, she had no clue it would become a staple of the Games's history.

Coombs is a large part of the history of the seal kick, a one-foot high-kick event in which competitors jump from the ground with a running start to kick a tiny knitted seal in competition. The person who kicks the seal at the greatest height wins.

Coombs worked at Labrador Handicrafts Limited in 1983 when she was approached to create a piece for the event. She got to work, and says the rest is history.

"They told me they would use something that was something like a seal. So I thought 'I'll make up a little seal,'" Coombs told CBC News with a laugh during a recent interview.

"That's what I did, and that's what they've been using for years."

Coombs has made them for every Games since 1983. She says she has no desire to give it up any time soon.

Learn more about how the seals are made and more about the history behind the event in the video above.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador