EVENT PROFILE P lanning a major multi-sport event is challenging enough without a pandemic blowing in to upend everyone’s hard work with starts and stops. So, when the Arctic Winter Games (AWG) finally got the go-ahead to take place January 29 to February 4 in Alberta, after being postponed from the previous year, it was cause for everyone in Fort McMurray Wood Buffalo (FMWB) to rejoice. “This felt like a celebration for our region; the energy here was palpable and joyful,” says Terri Nielsen, director, tourism, FMWB Economic Development & Tourism. “The AWG has a certain prestige because it’s an international sporting event that also has a huge cultural component. We hosted in 2004, and we felt privileged and excited to host it once again.” BUILDING A LEGACY Welcoming athletes and cultural performers from across the circumpolar north, including Alaska, Greenland, Yukon, Northwest Territories and several Scandinavian countries, the AWG was also a chance to honour FMWB’s diverse Indigenous peoples—the Cree, Dene and Métis, and the traditions of visiting participants. The event encouraged attendees, volunteers and competitors to embrace the Seven Sacred Teachings—love, respect, honesty, courage, wisdom, humility and truth—and included a cultural gala and an artisans’ marketplace. “We’re working hard to attract visitors and tourists, and we’re super collaborative,” says Nielsen. “We have world-class venues here because of the sponsorship and richness of A COMMUNITY-WIDE CELEBRATION BY WENDY HELFENBAUM our region. For example, MacDonald Island Park, where we hosted the Western Canada Summer Games in 2015, has hockey and curling rinks, tracks, a full-sized football field and baseball diamonds—all in one place. We’ve got Olympic standard timers and all the infrastructure in place to land different sports events in our region.” Because Greenland’s plane was the largest to ever land in Fort McMurray, it drew quite a spectacle when it arrived, adds Nielsen. “There were so many people at the airport with their noses pressed up against the window, and our airport hired a DJ to help welcome everyone,” she says. STAYING IN THE GAME Anytime you host an event of this magnitude, things can come up, says Elizabeth Priest, program manager of marketing and communications for the Wood Buffalo 2023 AWG Host Society. “There were slight delays in transportation, which happens when you’re moving 2,000 people all at the same time. And when you’re Snowshoe Biathlon One foot high kick Arm pull competition Mixed sports competition PHOTOS: ARCTIC WINTER GAMES INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE AND AWG HOST SOCIETY ARCTIC WINTER 2023 GAMES 26 ADRENALIN | SPRING 2023 ADRENALINMAG.CA
