While Yukon athletes were busy collecting medals at home during the Arctic Winter Games, another group of Yukoners were excelling on the Outside.

Special Olympics Yukon was competing in St. Albert, Alta., for the 2012 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games.

The Yukon team face competition from nearly 800 athletes representing every province and territory across the country.

The Winter Games serve as a qualifying event for the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games that will take place in South Korea.

The Yukon team was able to achieve a number of firsts at the Winter Games including a gold medal performance from 15-year-old figure skater Michael Sumner and gold for the Yukon curling team.

Sumner, the youngest member of Team Yukon, is the first Yukon figure skater to medal at nationals.

He's currently training back in Whitehorse and Amber Church, Team Yukon Chef de Mission, said he's still "over the moon.”

"Michael's skate was wonderful,” she said.

"He was glowing with energy, the crowd was screaming and the energy in the room was fabulous.”

Sumner, a gregarious personality, had befriended so many athletes and staff members that by the time he took the ice for his free skate the arena was cheering wildly in support.

"Saskatchewan's floor hockey team was there, the entire N.W.T squad was there, there were a bunch of law officers waving flags,” Church said. "It was incredible.”

The Games also marked the first time Yukon had sent a curling team to nationals.

The squad, composed of Lead Christopher Lee, Second Gaetan "Gaets” Michaud,

Third Darrin Lucas and Skip Colin Sterriah went undefeated.

"The curling team just blew people away,” said Church. "They did fabulously.”

The Yukon team was placed in the same pool as Ontario, Quebec and Alberta.

After winning each of their games in the round-robin, they met a strong Alberta team in the finals.

"The curling games were the most stressful part for me,” said Church, laughing.

"The final score was 13-2 but it wasn't a blowout, it was very tight all the way through. The Alberta skip was very good and we definitely stole some ends, including the final end where we stole 5 points.

"The final score doesn't reflect how tough that game was.”

The curling team is now back in town and were competing at the Whitehorse Curling Club on Monday night.

"They were really excited to get back to the Club and share their stories from the Games,” said Church.

On the trails, the cross-country team was able to bring home two medals.

Garry Chaplin won a bronze medal in the 2.5-kilometre classic and a 5th place finish in the 5-km classic while Owen Munroe won a silver medal in the 5-km classic and an 8th place finish in the 7.5-km classic.

A lack of snow forced the cross-country events to be moved more than an hour out of town and the new courses were longer than anticipated.

"In the 7.5-km the way the loops were it actually worked out to be 9-km,” said Church. "All the tracks were a bit longer than they were posted as. The athletes did really well given that they were skiing much longer than they anticipated in their training.

"They had big grins on their faces by the time they finished.”

The athletes were kept warm with the support of 2,500 hand-knit scarves that came in from across the country.

The Scarf Project was inspired by the red mittens worn by athletes, coaches and fans at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Fans were encouraged to donate a bit of time and yarn to help support the Special Olympics and knit or crochet scarves in the Games colours of blue, white and red.

"During the Opening Ceremonies we all walked in wearing one,” said Church. "For me it really showed the impact of Special Olympics across the country and also the community support behind it.”

Yukon had one of the smaller teams at the Games with just over 80 athletes and 50 certified coaches and volunteers.

"We were lucky in some ways being a smaller team,” said Church.

"It allows us to really spend time with the athletes and see their successes.

"The Ontario Chef offered to trade me teams because my coaches and athletes were so fantastic and she was quite jealous. It was a really positive experience all around.”

The team should hear back in the next few weeks if they will have any members moving onto the Special Olympics World Winter Games next year.

With exceptional performances from all of the athletes, Church is hopeful that the selection process will bring some good news to the team.

"The team was thrilled and I'm incredibly proud of them.”

"They all worked so hard.”