Team Yukon faces the Northwest Territories in the U19 female category on Monday. Photo Courtesy of Macklen Linke/CKRW.
Whitehorse, YT – Halfway through the 2026 Arctic Winter Games, Team Yukon is racking up golds and setting new records in front of a hometown crowd.
In Arctic Sports, Emily King set a new Arctic Winter Games record in the open female one-hand reach, earning a gold ulu. The Yukon Gymnastics team also captured its first-ever Games title.
Alpine skier Josephine de Jager added a slalom gold to her giant slalom win from Monday. She competed alongside her younger brothers, Julian, who also won gold, and Sebastian, who placed fourth.
“Julian winning gold, he really earned that. He was really excited and Sebastian pushed himself,” said de Jager. “He did really, really good. Yeah, he came and talked to me about it. He was really nervous, but he did awesome.”
In archery, two Yukon teams topped the podium: Dawson Widney and Mya Wilson won gold, while Draden Dennis and Mikayla Therriault took silver. Widney said competing on home turf helped calm his nerves.
“Just like being where we grew up is, I feel like that’s just helping the nerves out a lot, just making us more calm,” said Widney.
Table tennis players Victor Li and Charles Cron captured gold in doubles after a dramatic rematch against Greenland. They had lost to the same team in round-robin play, but Li said support from the home crowd eased the pressure.
“That disappeared when our Team Yukon supported and cheered for us through the whole game,” said Li.
Figure skaters Lily Bowen and Laura Ruiz aimed to set personal bests, with Ruiz winning silver. Ruiz credited the energetic crowd for giving her an extra boost.
“It kind of gave more fuel, if that makes sense,” said Ruiz. “It kind of made us want to like perform better and like present more. And I thought that was really fun.”
Earlier in the week, U19 girls’ basketball team secured some strong wins against Alaska and the Northwest Territories. Team Yukon guards Sarah Svoboda and Sadie Warren said competing at home was a thrill.
“We went to a couple of tournaments, but this one was really like feeling the real deal, like we’re here,” said Svoboda. “We put in the work, and finally, get to play with each other, for each other, and show off the great work we’ve put in for so many months.”
