Cross-country skier Owen Munroe took to the podium to speak on behalf of his fellow Special Olympics Yukon athletes at Sport Yukon yesterday.

Munro was one of seven athletes named to Team Yukon's training squad aiming to compete at the 2012 National Winter Games set to take place in St. Albert, Alta., from Feb. 27-March 4.

"We have all been working very hard to prepare for the Games, and we are very excited. I can't wait to experience a national games with my friends.”

For the first year in the territory's history at the National Winter Games, the territory will send a curling team, made up of lead Christopher Lee, second Gaetan Michaud, third Darrin Lucas and skip Colin Sterriah, with Brent Gibbon as head coach and Bill Wasylenko as assitant coach.

Lee attended the National Summer Games for soccer in 2006 and 2010. Michaud competed in the 1994 and 1998 National Summer Games in athletics, and again in 2010 for soccer. Both Lucas and Sterriah, meanwhile, attended the 2010 summer games for soccer.

"I feel great,” said Sterriah, who has been curling for the past five years and knows how long the process has been to form a Special Olympics Yukon curling team – some six years.

"I feel pretty stoked about it. I'm just happy,” he added.

Figure skater Michael Sumner will make his debut in the National Winter Games, along with head coach Michelle Gorczyca of the Arctic Edge Figure Skating Club in Whitehorse.

This will mark an especially exciting National Winter Games for Special Olympics Yukon, Chef de Mission Amber Church said.

"They've been talking about this for the past six months already – they're thrilled,” Church said. "Michael, our figure skater, has never gone to nationals before, so this is a huge thing for him. And the curlers, to be the first team ever from the Yukon to qualify for curling, is very, very exciting as well.”

The seven athletes were selected through provincial qualifiers. The cross-country team qualified in the territory. The curlers and figure skater had to qualify in the B.C. provincials. Sumner, for instance, won a silver medal at the B.C. provincials earlier this year.

Munroe has competed in three national games and one world games previously.

He first went to the 2006 National Summer Games in Brandon, Man., for soccer in 2006. In 2008, he competed in his first National Summer Games, in Quebec City, for cross-country skiing.

After that, he made the jump to international competition with participation in the 2009 World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho, before returning to compete in the 2010 National Summer Games in London, Ont., in athletics.

But it's as a cross-country skier Munroe feels best.

"Cross-country skiing is so much fun, and I like it, and I love skiing,” Munroe said, admitting that he gets a little nervous when competing. "But I control myself by thinking positively and thinking that I can do it. I also really enjoy travelling to nationals.

"I feel really proud because I've been selected again.”

Munroe will be joined on Team Yukon's cross-country ski team by Garry Chaplin, who has the most experience out of the territory's athletes at national games with five appearances and one World Winter Games, in Nagano, Japan, in 2005.

Leah Greenway is the Yukon's head coach for cross-country skiing. Tom Gibbs is team manager and Grant MacDonald is leading the mission staff.