It’s all in the details

DENISE RIDEOUT

Pulling off as an big event as the Arctic Winter Games isn’t just about rounding up 1,000 athletes, building sports complexes and finding accommodations for visiting spectators.

Games organizers have dozens of minute details to work out to get the week-long sports event off the ground.

Builders have to create bleachers that strike a balance between comfort and safety for the spectators who will be sitting on them. Signs giving directions to everywhere from the washrooms to the score boards have to be written in three languages. And the most coveted thing of the Games — the medals — have to guarded.

With just 23 days until the Games begin, organizers are working on the finishes touches — small as they are.

Tamara Macpherson, external relations officer for the Arctic Winter Games, says some of the tasks at hand are quite interesting, to say the least.

Take the bleachers for instance. For most spectators, they’re merely a place to sit. But for the Games organizers, the bleachers have to be perfect. Perfect comfort and perfect safety, that is.

“We were out at the FOL site yesterday and we sat on the prototype of the bleachers,” Macpherson says with a giggle. “They were comfortable and very safe.”

Making signs for the sports venues ended up being one of the more challenging tasks. “Signage was absolutely mind-boggling,” Macpherson says.

It took time and planning to get them just right. “We walked through each one of the 33 venues being used for the Games,” she explains. “First, we walked through pretending we were an athlete, then pretending that we were a spectator, then pretending that we were a VIP, then pretending we were from the media, then pretending we were a coach, then pretending we were an official, and then thinking of the signs in three different languages.”

Special care also has to be taken with the AWG signs that will be posted around the streets of Iqaluit.

“We’ll be putting those up much closer to the Games because we don’t want them to blow away,” she said, bursting into laughter.

And then, there’s the task of protecting the coveted ulu medals. “The box of ulus will be arriving this week. They’ve obviously been counted and we have to keep a really close watch on them,” Macpherson says. So close a watch, in fact, that they’ll be locked away in a safe.