Team Nunavik-Quebec in final weeks of training ahead of AWG

Team Nunavik’s Deseray Cumberbatch, centre, shows off her gold ulu with teammate Sarah Samisack, left, who won bronze in the 2010 AWG in Grande Prairie, Alberta. The two competed in the two-foot high kick (open female). (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KRG)

KUUJJUAQ—The Kativik Regional Government will send 55 Nunavimmiut athletes to compete at the upcoming Arctic Winter Games in the Northwest Territories.

The 2018 AWG will be hosted by the neighbouring communities of Fort Smith and Hay River, N.W.T. from March 18 to March 24, drawing hundreds of competitors from across Canada’s North and the circumpolar world.

With coaches, games staff and performers included, Team Nunavik-Quebec will have a full contingent of 77 this year, its chef de mission, Karin Kettler, told KRG regional council meetings in Kuujjuaq on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

This year’s athletes are competing in Arctic sports, badminton, Dene games, snowshoeing and table tennis.

The team will be split into two groups for most of the games, Kettler said, as Fort Smith and Hay River are about a three-hour drive apart.

Fort Smith will host the Arctic sport events and table tennis, while Hay River will host Dene games, badminton, snowshoeing and the games’ opening and closing ceremonies.

Team Nunavik-Quebec 2016 was about the same size at the 2016 games in Nuuk, Greenland, when the team of 56 athletes brought home six gold medals, nine silver and six bronze.

Nunavik athletes got a boost of encouragement this month with video messages from Canadian Olympic speed skate Charles Hamelin and astronaut and former Nunavik doctor David St. Jacques.

Besides Nunavik, four other regions or territories compete in the AWG: Nunavut, N.W.T., Yukon and Alberta North. International contenders include athletes from the northern Russian region of Yamal, the Sapmi region of northern Europe, Greenland and Alaska.