Team Nunavut still absorbing news of Arctic Winter Games cancellation

Team Nunavut’s athletes, coaches, volunteers and organizers are still processing the cancellation of this year’s Arctic Winter Games, which would have taken place this week in Whitehorse, Yukon.

The games were cancelled on Saturday, March 7, as a precautionary measure over concerns about COVID-19.

“I was pretty surprised, taken aback and disappointed,” said Mariele Depeuter, Nunavut’s acting director of sports and recreation, about the news.

The games were going to start this coming Sunday, and Depeuter said they were in the final stages of getting ready, making sure the athletes had uniforms and confirming flights.

“We were in the high of the games about to start,” she said.

Mariele Depeuter is the Government of Nunavut’s acting director of sports and recreation. (Submitted photo)

There has been some momentum in communities to organize events for the athletes to make up for the cancelled games, like continued practices and dinners, Depeuter said.

She added that she really feels for the volunteers and community sports organizations that worked hard behind the scenes to get athletes ready to go.

The news that the games were cancelled stopped Depeuter in her tracks, but she said she understands the reason behind that decision.

That sentiment is echoed by Jovan Simic, a dog-mushing coach who lives in Iqaluit.

“I feel bad for those who had to make the decision,” he said.

Simic works with another coach, Annie Cyr-Parent, and two mushers, Leetia Eegeesiak and Devon Manik.

“It was a bit of a shock, we’ve been working together for a year,” Simic said.

He said they had to train their team of 12 dogs differently in anticipation of the differences between racing in the eastern Arctic and the Yukon.

The hardest thing was breaking the news to Eegeesiak and Manik, Simic said.

The competition isn’t the only thing they were looking forward to.

“People who like dogs, like talking about dogs,” he said. “They were looking forward to that aspect, as well.”

He added that at least the two mushers had the experience of learning and growing for a year.

They are also participating in a dogsled journey from Iqaluit to Kimmirut in April, which is their focus now.

“We’re trying to make it so it’s not for nothing,” Simic said of the preparations that the team made.

He said maybe Eegeesiak and Manik will wear their AWG uniforms during the journey to Kimmirut.

Manik is 19, and it would have been his last chance to participate in the AWG, but Simic said he is handling the disappointment well.

Andrew Bell said he had athletes like Manik, who won’t have the chance to participate in future games, in mind when he heard about the cancellation.

Bell, 35, was going to participate in Arctic Sports, which is one AWG category that doesn’t have an age restriction.

Bell lives in Arviat, and this AWG would have been his fifth.

Since trying Arctic sports in Kugluktuk in 2011, Bell said they have become a regular part of his life. He practises for an hour and a half three times a week. In addition, every day he bikes for three hours, walks for two kilometres, and stretches.

The AWG and other competitions are a big motivator to keep going, Bell said, because the practice routine becomes repetitive.

“It all seems to make sense when the Arctic Winter Games come around,” he said.

Bell wants younger athletes to know how important the positive outlook is that comes from participating in sports. He said it can transfer into other areas of your life, and open up opportunities down the road.

“A decision was made in our best interest,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you should give up on your sport.”

Bell also said he is still processing the fact that he won’t be competing in Whitehorse, and he can’t help feeling there should be another chance to compete sooner.

“Do we just wait for 2022?” He said.

There are other sports competitions between now and then, but Depeuter said that the next scheduled AWG will be in 2022, in Wood Buffalo, Alberta.

She said that the Nunavut government had projected that they would spend $1 million on the AWG and Team Nunavut’s travel. Since airlines reimbursed flights to get back and forth from the games, that is money saved by the government. Depeuter said she doesn’t know how it will be spent.

Money that has been spent went towards uniforms and pins, which Depeuter said the athletes will still get.

“They’ve earned it.”