Sports > Sport History
The impetus for the creation of the Arctic Winter Games was to provide the non-elite athlete an opportunity to compete with peers in an international environment. When choosing which sports to include, the International Committee tries to select sports that are identifiably Northern or have a high participation level among the various contingents. In recent years, he Committee has also made a very conscious effort to bring parity for female athletes by adding distaff contingents in hockey, wrestling, and Dene games. The International committee has selected well from the very first Games in putting together a sporting program that is both competitive and appealing in its diversity. Eight of the ten sports selected for the inaugural Games are staples in today’s Games, as are 13 of the 15 from the 1980 Games. Only one sport, snowboarding, has been added since 1988. Since 1990 the number of sports has varied from 17 to 20, depending on the facilities available in the host community.
The
first Arctic Winter Games, staged in Yellowknife in 1970 with about
500 athletes, coaches, and officials participating in ten sports. The
presence of the Prime Minister clearly reflected the importance of the
Games for the Canadian North. The 1970 Games were a huge success, with
half of Yellowknife’s population attending the closing ceremony.
In 1972 Whitehorse hosted the Games and, with 900 participants, the
event almost doubled in size. Northern Quebec and Greenland sent small
official contingents to participate in several of the 12 sports. Unfortunately,
the athletes from Greenland arrived late due to inclement weather en
route. Labrador and the Soviet Union sent observers.
In 1974 Anchorage hosted the AWG, which had expanded to 16 sports and
950 participants.
These Games inaugurated a number of events that have become signatures
of the AWG: a lighted torch, central to the opening and closing ceremonies,
burned throughout the week; all the contingents wore team uniforms for
the ceremonies, some of them quite colorful; Native culture took center
stage with dance performances and Inuit sports were added. Today Inuit
sports are the most popular spectator sports of the Games.
In
1976 Schefferville, Quebec, hosted the Games. Due to the small population
of the community, the size of the Games had to be reduced to 13 sports
and 700 participants. Unfortunately, the Northern Quebec contingent
dropped its participation after the 1976 Games, because of the high
cost of travel to the other sites. While it did send a small contingent
in 1986, Northern Quebec did not permanently rejoin the Games until
2000. Only the three founding contingents of Alaska, NWT, and Yukon
competed in the Games from 1978 through 1984.
In 1978 the Games returned to the Northwest Territories, this time to
Hay River and Pine Point. The two towns, 60 miles apart, were connected
by rail, the first passenger railroad service in NWT. The two sites
shared the 14 sports, but Hay River hosted the opening and closing ceremonies.
The number of participants, at 700, was again below the 1972-1974 levels,
due to the limited facilities.
Whitehorse (1980, 1986, and 1992), Fairbanks (1982 and 1988), and Yellowknife
(1984 and 1990) shared the next seven Games. There were three major
trends during this period. First, the number of sports increased from
14 in 1978 to 17 or 18 during the period from 1986 to 1992. Second,
participation immediately returned to the 900 level and rose to 1,000
by 1986. Third, as the Games became better known, other contingents
clamored to join this popular biennial event. These included Northern
Alberta (1986); Greenland (1990); and Magadan, Russia (1992). All three
have maintained their participation in the Games.
In 1994 Slave Lake, Alberta, hosted greatly expanded Games. In spite
of its small population, the community managed to provide venues for
20 sports and housed 1,600 participants, which included a small contingent
from Tyumen, Russia, and, for the first time, a complete contingent
from the host Alberta North team. Tyumen remained in the Games through
1998.
Chugiak-Eagle River hosted the 1996 Games. These two communities, just
outside of Anchorage, maintained the feeling of smallness that is a
part of the spirit of the Games. However, the 1996 Games were hardly
small. Again, there were 20 sports and 1,600 participants. In terms
of organizational structure and the number of volunteers, these Games
set a new standard for staging. The increasing number of participants
and the continued requests from other entities to join, however, became
a concern for the organization. If the Games continued to grow, only
a few communities would have resources adequate to stage them. The debate
over limiting size began to take shape: Should the number of contingents
be restricted or should the adult level teams be phased out of the Games?
In 1998 and 2000, the Games returned to Yellowknife and Whitehorse respectively,
sites of the first two AWG. In 1998, participation and number of sports
continued at the 1996 level, except that alpine skiing could not be
held for lack of a hill. In 2000, several sports were dropped and snowboarding
made its first appearance. The big news, however, was the addition of
three contingents: Nunavut, the new Inuit territory carved out of the
eastern part of the NWT; Nunavik (Northern Quebec), returning from its
hiatus of 14 years; and Chukotka, Russia, replacing Tyumen.
The 2002 Games, staged in two different contingent areas — Nuuk,
Greenland, and Iqaluit, Nunavut — broke precedent. The logistics
posed a number of challenges for everyone including the International
Committee, the teams, and the host societies. However, the Games came
off with few problems and the experiences of being in sites that are
quite different from the usual hosting cities were treasured by most
participants. The two sites shared the 17 sports, with each of them
hosting participants in the very popular Inuit and Dene sports. It was
also at these Games that the International Committee’s decision
to eliminate all adult teams, other than for the Inuit and Dene games,
took effect.
Alberta hosted the 2004 Games, this time in Fort McMurray, the center
of the province’s “oil sands” region. Due to its size,
the community easily handled 20 sports and the almost 1,800 participants.
It also welcomed two new contingents: the multi-national Sami contingent,
that participated in only a few sports but had a pronounced presence
in cultural performances; and Yamal, Russia, which replaced Chukotka.
In 2006 the Games returned to Alaska, where they were staged in the
Kenai Peninsula. The cities of Kenai, Soldotna, and Homer, and the Alyeska
ski area provided the venues for the 20 sports.
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