“Kalaallit Nunaat!”
That’s what the Greenlandic athletes shouted in unison as they marched in the parade ahead of the opening ceremony of this year’s Arctic Winter Games.
In the front, 16-year-old Randi Zeeb Sigurdsen from Ikerasak walked as the flag bearer. She is an Arctic Sport athlete and holds the AWG record in the two-foot high kick from 2024.
Behind her walked the 58 other athletes who make up this year’s Team Kalaallit Nunaat. They were greeted by cheers and applause from the spectators.
The AWG will take place in Whitehorse, Canada this year and over the next week, Greenlandic athletes will compete in Arctic Sport, Dene Games, badminton, table tennis and snowboarding. A cultural delegation from Greenland will also be participating.
Last night, the event kicked off with the opening ceremony.
"What we're made of"
In addition to Team Kalaallit Nunaat, the teams Alaska, Alberta North, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik-Quebec and Sapmi will be participating. When all eight teams arrived at Shipyards Park, where the opening ceremony was held, speeches were made, dances were performed and a choir sang the Canadian national anthem.
In addition, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney sent a video greeting, wishing all the athletes a good AWG. He noted how the theme this year is “What we’re made of” (ed.), which he thought was fitting.
Finally, the sky lit up with fireworks, marking the start of this year’s Arctic Winter Games.
It has been 14 years since the AWG was last held in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. In 2020, the Games were supposed to be held in the city, but were cancelled due to the coronavirus. Therefore, there was a clear sense of excitement that the AWG had now been successfully brought back to the Yukon.
