With a bill of approximately $10 million in addition to delegation investments, hosting the Arctic Winter Games (AHG) for some 1,800 athletes and delegates in Alaska’s Mat-Su Valley is a significant investment. . According to participants and observers, the benefits go beyond financial considerations.
The chief referee of the badminton tournament, Yves Côté, has repeatedly noted throughout the international championships and Olympic Games in which he has been involved how essential these games are to the development of sporting talent.
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Yves Côté traveled from Gaspésie, Quebec, to the Mat-Su Valley, Alaska, to act as chief referee of the badminton tournament.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Claudiane Samson
I adore [les JHA] because, like all smaller competitions, it is development and you never know who will arrive where and when. Last year, I was at the Canada Winter Games in Charlottetown and one of the highest rated in the men’s singles, he’s a player from the Yukon so it could come from anywhere.
A speed record that has an impact
Speed skater Akutaq Williamson Bathory from Iqaluit demonstrated this well this week by breaking the speed record set at the 2006 games in the U-19 500 meter competition.
For her coach, Martine Dupont, it is the kind of example that then encourages younger people to get involved in sport, since the athlete’s exploits, she recalls, are the fruit of many, many years. of work.
She explains that in Nunavut, where a plane ticket between certain communities and the capital can reach $10,000, travel is simply not accessible, particularly to participate in a sporting competition.
The JHA allows them to discover the world, to discover other cultures that are similar to yours, she explains.
It gives [aux jeunes] an incentive to invest in positive things [et] a healthy lifestyle, [dans] a group that wants their good, that is positive for them, that leads them to surpass themselves [et dans lequel] if you invest 100%, you might […] be selected to represent your territory.
Yukon MP Brendan Hanley, who attends the competitions as a parent, also believes the event is worth more than the hefty price tag. The former chief medical officer of health compares gaming to building mental and physical health infrastructure.
Cost is certainly an issue, but I must say that the impact [est important et] in the long term, not only for the host municipality, but above all, to see young people enthusiastic and engaged in promoting physical fitness, sports, cultural activities, participation, team spirit, there is so many values!
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Snowshoe biathlon is one of 20 sports disciplines featured in the Arctic Winter Games.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Cheryl Kawaja
For Olympian Jean Paquet, biathlon coach for the Alaska team, it is the community athletes who bring him a lot.
It’s really fun because in general the young people who are in the villages don’t have the resources that I experienced with the athletes that we are closer to a big city. We really feel that when you give them advice, they listen more, they are interested, they are like little lights, and it’s fun to go back to basics: we have the impression that we are contributing a little more .
According to Yves Côté, it is not only the athletes who benefit from development within the framework of the games, but also the referees, linesmen or any other official involved in these competitions.
We can’t ignore it, we can’t say: “You’re far away so we won’t take care of you.” Fundamental error.
He adds that one of the best badminton referees in the country that he knows comes from Whitehorse. If I had let him, we wouldn’t have gotten him. Proof that we must invest, he says, in amateur sport in isolated regions.
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Badminton competitions attract many athletes from more isolated regions.
Photo : Radio-Canada / Claudiane Samson
Martine Dupont adds. If we want activities, sports, culture to be undertaken by local leaders, we must condition them at a young age to have examples so that they also see themselves as the next coaches or the next leaders of these groups. – there, it is important to show them the example, that it can be the fun also to be a coach or a guide and to get involved in your community.
Her son and speed skating athlete, William Pothier, intends to follow in his mother’s footsteps. Aged 17, these games will be his last as an athlete, but he wishes to continue in other roles, as a coach or official.
The games, he explains, allowed him to have a goal during his adolescence, that of returning to the JHA experience.
I know that there are plenty of people who made it possible that me and my teammates could get to where we are today, and these people were all volunteers, no one was paid, and I want to give back what was given to me to the next generation.
2024-03-14 14:42:57
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