Yukon athletes had tremendous success at the recent Indigenous Games in Yellowknife.

The Games took place June 30 to July 3.

Five Yukon athletes, including Eric Porter, who was a coach / athlete, took part.

The other athletes included Augustin Greetham, Angela Prochazka and Myra and Harmony Kendi. They ranged in age from 14-17 years.

Porter explained what events the athletes competed in.

"A few of our girls did most of what we consider Northern Games events or Arctic sports up here but Augustin did almost every single event. There was lots to choose from. There was traditional bare bow archery. There was fish-cutting, tea-boiling, numerous ones like that.

"There was all the high kicks. The one foot, two foot, the Alaskan high kick, one hand reach. Augustin did the knuckle hop. (And) Dene games such as the greasy stick pull, pull-push."

A complete list of the events at the Games can be found at https://ascnwt.ca/events/2022-indigenous-summer-games

Porter said they did well in the events.

"The girls had only been practicing for a few months so they made a lot of improvements. One of the girls (Myra Kendi) even got a few medals herself, bronze, in the kneel jump and pull-push and one other one.

"And then Augustin got top Junior Male Athlete and cleaned house with 17 medals or something like that."

In total, the group ended up with 24 medals.

"Augustin had 17, the girls had three and I had four myself," related Porter.

Porter was pleased with the results.

"It was good. It's a new competition."

Porter said they will be competing in the events every two years, so even though the girls only had a few months of practice, they had more Dene games experience before coming over to Arctic sports and having that combination would be beneficial to them.

"If they stick with it, there'll be lots more time for practice and upcoming competitions," said Porter.

"And Augustin as well, he's fairly new to the sport. He had a little bit of a gymnastics background but just a really athletic kid, so he translates really well to pretty much every single event. I'm pretty sure he'll be sticking with it too as we have back-to-back Arctic Winter Games coming up."

The young athletes felt good about their results, too.

"They had a lot of fun too," recalled Porter. "I think they almost surpassed their expectations."

Because of upcoming events, the athletes are going to be very busy in the near future.

"It's gonna be getting into our busy year soon, just because of school starting up," said Porter. "And once we have our ID camp, we have our own inter-school competition that we usually do every year. We want to have our team already selected come September, because the Games are earlier this time around in January. Usually they're in March. So you get less time to practice before competing, so we want to get as much in as we can in that small window of time.

"So we'll have our team selection and then whoever else that's gonna express interest is going to be able to come train," he added.

The ID camp will most likely take place toward the end of September.

"Most teams have to have their athletes selected by December," said Porter. "Literally, after Christmas break, you have one month, then (Arctic) Games start on January 29."

The upcoming Arctic Games are Jan 29 to Feb. 4, 2023 in the Wood Buffalo regional municipality in Northern Alberta.

The host cities are Fort McMurray, Anzac and Fort McKay.

The 2024 Arctic Games are scheduled for the Matanuska-Sustina, or Mat-Su, Borough in Alaska in March. Some of the events will take place in Palmer and Wasilla, Alaska.

"They're doing back-to-back just to catch up after the COVID," said Porter.

"It's a big couple years for Arctic sports in our organization. Lots of competitions to look forward to, so gotta keep up with the training as well."

Porter added that there are other Arctic sports events and competitions in-between the games as well.