This Sunday, 247 Alaska youth athletes were supposed to participate in the opening ceremonies of the 50th Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
Instead, they’ll remain home, with the games canceled to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Tim Dillon, president of the Team Alaska Board of Directors, said the cancelation decision was made March 6 by the Yukon government.
“We’d been meeting with them on a daily basis and getting updates on a daily basis, and on Friday, some of the modeling changed. And, bottom line was, they canceled the games,” Dillon said.
As disappointing as it is to stay home, Dillon said health concerns have to come first.
“Our number-one concern is the health and wellbeing of these young people,” he said. “Yeah, it’s a great experience for folks and all but if just one person had a problem, it’s just not worth it.”
The games are held every two years and bring together about 2,000 people for a week from Canada, the U.S. Greenland, Russia, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Dillon said organizers were discussing safety strategies as late as last Thursday but the decision to cancel was a surprise.
“There were a lot of different protocols and tabletop exercises that had been done and what ifs, but just pulling the plug on the games completely was not something that any of us thought was really going to happen,” Dillon said.
This is the first time since the games began in 1970 that the event hasn’t been held as scheduled. Team Alaska is trying to recover as much of its costs as possible but money spent on travel, lodging, uniforms, food, lift tickets and the like will be difficult to get refunded. Alaska participants pay about $2,000 to go to the games.
“The key’s going to be to what extent we can do that refund,” Dillon said. “We’re not going to go knocking on everyone’s door, asking them for the uniforms back. We’ll just have to see what we can do and take our best crack at it.”
Wood Buffalo, Alberta, is scheduled to will host the 2022 games, with Alaska’s turn coming up in 2024.
