Local athletes represent well at Arctic Winter Games

• Team Alaska brings home 251 overall medals

By Ivan Wolfe
Special to the Homer Tribune
Team Alaska returned from the Arctic Winter Games in Grande Prairie, Alberta, as the dominant force in nearly every category the competed in.  Team Alaska won 251 total medals — the most overall — as well as the most medals in each category: 87 gold, 85 silver and 79 bronze. So complete was Team Alaska’s dominance, they nearly doubled the number of medals received by the second-place team from Alberta North. In addition, the contingency from Alaska also showed their stellar character, as well as athletic skill, winning the prestigious Hodgson Trophy for best overall sportsmanship.
Homer, as well as other nearby communities, were well-represented at the games. Athletes from the area participated in sports such as wrestling, basketball, indoor soccer and hockey. Wrestlers included Mitch Wyatt, Victoria Locklar, Iosif Martishev, Zenon Martushev and Lillian Connor. Miranda Beach, Kayla Hutt, Maggie Koplin, Makenzie Moore, Liz Needham and Alecia Stafford competed on the basketball team, Hannah LaRue participated in hockey and Quinn Daugharty played on the indoor soccer team. Team coaches from Homer included Steve Wolfe for wrestling, Tim Daugharty for basketball, Janice Todd for snowshoe biathlon and Edward Todd for ski biathlon.
Homer athletes returned from Canada as an integral part of Team Alaska’s success. The female basketball and hockey teams each returned with a bronze medal, and the wrestling team scored several medals in both freestyle and Inuit wrestling. In team competition, Team Alaska took the gold in wrestling, and in individual competition, all the Homer wrestlers earned medals. Mitch Wyatt received gold in both freestyle and Inuit at 82 kg. Zenon Martushev also took gold in both categories at 75kg. Iosif Martishev took silver in Inuit and gold in freestyle at 62 kg.
In female wrestling, Lillian Connor earned silver in both Inuit and freestyle at 71 kg, and Victoria Lockler earned gold in Inuit and silver in freestyle at 65 kg. Iosif Martishev and Lillian Connor also won individual sportsmanship awards for freestyle and Inuit wrestling, respectively.
According to wrestling coach Steve Wolfe, one-fourth of the gold medals that were won by Team Alaska came from the wrestling team.
“I think that shows the strength of high school wrestling in Alaska,” Wolfe said. “It says a lot that we can go to an international event and do so well.”
Wolfe said he would have liked to see more teams there to participate in the games, however.
“Russia didn’t even send a team this year,” he explained. “But, overall, our kids did really well and had a great time.”
The Arctic Winter Games are held every two years and include teams from countries and provinces around the Arctic Circle. In this 21st Arctic Winter Games, teams competed from Alaska, Alberta North, Greenland, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Russia (Yamal-Nenet Region of northwest Siberia), Samiland (Sami region of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia) and the Yukon Territory.
Athletes competed in cultural events and 20 sports including ice hockey, cross country skiing, dog mushing, curling, basketball, soccer, and traditional Dene (Athabascan) and Inuit competitions.
The goal of the games is to help develop young athletes in a spirit of international cooperation and cultural exchange.

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