Inuit Winter Games

The Arctic Winter Games are held every two years and feature competitions in a variety of sports, including traditional Inuit events. Contestants represent the Inuit communities of Alaska, Canada and Greenland, as well as the Sami communities of Northern Scandinavia and Russia and the Yamal autonomous district of Russia. Cities bid to host the games, just like the Olympics.

  1. History

    • Cal Miller and Stuart Hodgson came up with the idea for an Arctic version of Canada's Winter Games in 1967. In 1970, Yellowknife hosted the first Arctic Winter Games, with competitors from Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Alaska. Northern Quebec sent a team to the 1972 games and teams from Greenland and Russia participated in 1994. The Sami and Yamal teams participated for the first time in the 2004 games.

    Traditional Events

    • The Arctic Winter Games host 11 Arctic sports, as well as the Dene Games, which have five events. Three Arctic events are variations on the high kick, a sport that requires competitors to leap as high as possible and kick a suspended object. Other traditional events include the arm pull, an event similar to arm wrestling and the head pull, which pits two opponents against each other in a tug-of-war using only the head. The Dene Games involve three events that test strength and stamina, the stick pull, finger pull and pole push. The pole push has two teams on opposite ends of a pole and the object is to push the other team out of the ring. The object of the stick pull is to pull a greased stick out of the other player's hand. The snowsnake is a spear throwing contest and the finger pull is a painful event that involves two opponents finger wrestling until one opponent straightens the other opponent's finger, or one player concedes. The final event in the Dene Games is the Dene Hand Games, which involves two teams attempting to hide tokens from one another while sitting close together.

    Other Events

    • The Arctic Winter Games features many winter sporting events found in the Olympic Games, including alpine skiing, ice hockey, figure skating, snowboarding, snowshoeing and speed skating, curling, cross country skiing and biathlon. The sport of dog mushing is also included in the games and includes sprint events using four-dog sleds. In addition to winter sports, the games contain several events usually seen in the Summer Olympics, including badminton, basketball, gymnastics, soccer, wrestling, volleyball and table tennis.

    Cultural Events

    • In addition to sporting events, the Arctic Winter Games hosts cultural and artistic events, including a cultural festival that features presentations of the literary, visual and performing arts with both traditional and modern interpretations. Like the Olympics, the Arctic Games have a village for athletes and spectators and the village has presentations and programs that highlight the cultures represented at the games. For the 2012 games, a new tradition will be featured, the song relay. Rather than passing an Olympic torch or some other object around the world, the Arctic Winter Games will select a song that will be passed from region to region.