The Government of Yukon announced a second round of funding for athletes and coaches on Tuesday, as part of the Yukon Sport For Life Program and Elite Athlete funding.

A total of $423,000 will be contributed to the program, that helps athletes and coaches.

The focus of Sport For Life is getting youth involved, engaging aboriginals, building athletes and coach and athlete development.

The program recognizes the need for development at both the grassroots level and the elite athlete level.

Of the money, $50,000 will go towards the Yukon's many elite athletes that are carded by recognized sporting associations.

The four athletes receiving funding under the Elite Athlete program are Alexandra Gabor and Mackenzie Downing for swimming, Zach Bell for cycling and Brittanee Laverdure for wrestling.

"We believe that the success of these Yukon athletes illustrates the value of our ongoing financial support for sport and recreation,” said community services minister Archie Lang on Tuesday.

The bulk of the money, however, will go towards the many top-quality coaches in the Yukon. Of the funding, $358,450 will go towards sport governing bodies to distribute accordingly.

"It goes to the athletes in a sense, but more to the coaches,” said Trevor Twardochleb, sport consultant for the Government of Yukon.

The final portion of the money, $14,550, will go towards a territorial travel subsidy, for athletes' travel within Yukon.

"This helps offset some of those costs,” Twardochleb said.

The final portion of the money will go towards Rural and Aboriginal Development, Twardochleb said.

This money will be put into athlete and sport development in the communities, to help introduce rural athletes to new sport and recreation opportunities.

Coaches in the Yukon will benefit from the fund most, as the funding is meant to develop coaches and bring in new ones.

"Much like athlete subsidies, we're looking at developing,” Twardochleb said.

The coaching money is split between salaries and coaching enhancement.

"We're looking at developing high level coaches,” Twardochleb added.

The only restriction is that the coaches must reside within the Yukon, but money is available for coaches willing to re-locate to the territory.

This has been the case in the past, and the Yukon has since collected a handful of world-class coaches.

"There's a lot of sports that have professional coaches,” Twardochleb said. "I think everybody deserves to have a properly trained and professional coach.”

With a collection of talented athletes budding from the Yukon right now, the need for more emphasis on coaching couldn't be more apparent.

"We have to have coaches at certain level,” Twardochleb said.

Through the Yukon Sport For Life program, coaches can be sent Outside for courses and training.

"We have some terrific athletes in this small territory,” Twardochleb said.

The Yukon Sport For Life program grew out of the Best Ever program that was put in place in approximately 2005 to produce the best results at the Arctic Winter Games.

Following the Games, the Government of Yukon recognized the success of the program and decided to keep investing into it, changing the name to Sport For Life.

"I am pleased to announce our continued support for our excellent sports organizations through the Yukon Sport For Life program,” said Lang.