Youth movement leads Team N.W.T. into 2018 Arctic Winter Games

Fresh faces and youthful enthusiasm will lead athletes from the Northwest Territories at the 2018 Arctic Winter games.

It's a relatively young team, with a number of first-timers on the team, explained Doug Rentmeister, the chef de mission for the Northwest Territories.

"There's going to be a lot of emotion and passion displayed throughout the week, more so than with a more experienced team," Rentmeister said.

"It's the excitement that's created by first time participants," he said. "You've got parents clamouring over each other to try to get down there and cheer them on."

Young, but with hopes for a medal

Rentmeister said the team that went to Nuuk, Greenland in 2016 was made up of AWG veterans who likely were drawn to the more "exotic" location.

This year's games, with the venues split between Hay River and Fort Smith, will be unique in their own wayand have opened the door for new, younger athletes, he said.

How young?

For one, there's Yellowknife table tennis wonder Zachary Mathison, who's eight years oldand needed special permission from Sport North to go to the games.

Even though they know they'll be one of the younger teams, Team N.W.T.'s male curlers are counting on the experience they've gained at Canadian Junior Curling Championships over the past two years.

"They know they are competing against older curlers at the Arctic Winter Games. But they want to be on the podium," explained curling coach Nick Kaeser.

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Athletes come from 18 different communities, but more than half of the team is made up of athletes and coaches from Yellowknife.

The largest sports contingent is hockey 56 athletes and coaches are heading to the games, followed closely by futsal, with 50.

Team N.W.T. is also highlighting its better-than-average record for representing women in sport.

Thirty-seven per cent of the coaching staff in Hay River and Fort Smith are women; the national average is 30 per cent.

The Northwest Territories contingent is also officially sporting a new name at these games, axing the "W" from Team N.W.T., and opting for the shorter Team NT.

The Tuktoyaktuk Siglit Drummers and Dancers are the N.W.T.'s cultural representatives at the games.The group performed in November for Governor General Julie Payette at the opening ceremonies for the InuvikTuktoyaktuk Highway.

"We always love travelling with our group. It brings us closer together," said Karlene Green, their 22-year-old leader.

The nine drummers and dancers also performed at the Adaka festival in 2016. Green said the songs and dances represent traditional activities like seal hunting and wood chopping.

"It's a way of supporting our communities and representing the N.W.T."

By the numbers

Contingent

Size: 350athletes and coaches,16mission staff, and ninecultural performers

Medal history

Nuuk 2016: 51 (5th overall)

Fairbanks 2014: 86 (4th overall)

Whitehorse 2012: 115 (3rd overall)

Grande Prairie 2010: 107 (3rd overall)