Where the Good Sports Win

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Let the rest of the sports world ponder Johnny Weir’s red glove and Bode Miller’s gate straddling.

For international athletes taking part in events that include snowshoeing and the Eskimo knuckle hop, the Arctic Winter Games beginning this weekend on the Kenai Peninsula are a chance to demonstrate the northern art of cooperation, rewarded by the games’ top prize -- a 6-foot-tall trophy narwhal tusk adorned with a carved soapstone bear.

First presented in 1978, the Hodgson Trophy -- named for Stuart M. Hodgson, a winter games founder from Canada -- isn’t automatically awarded to the team that collects the most gold. In the great north, where survival often is victory enough, sharing and fair play still count; the trophy rewards both.

“It has to do with a team’s conduct and sportsmanship, the big picture,” said Wendell Shiffler, a winter games vice president from Fairbanks. Shiffler will help count ballots from the more than 400 coaches, officials, reporters, Arctic Games representatives and others voting for this year’s Hodgson-worthy team.

In the make-do spirit of the Arctic, winners satisfy themselves with a photo of the trophy, an inscribed plaque and commemorative pins. After customs inspectors in Seattle delayed the trophy while it was en route to the games in 1982, the prized ivory tusk no longer leaves the Yukon Sports Hall of Fame in Whitehorse.

Begun in 1970 by leaders from Alaska and Canada’s Yukon and Northwest territories, the Arctic Winter Games are held every two years. High-school-age athletes from Russia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Greenland, Alaska and Canada participate. Over seven days, athletes compete in the usual games -- wrestling, basketball, soccer and the like -- but also in traditional Inuit and Dene games seen nowhere but the North.

Sweat-inducing, strategic events like the one foot high-kick, head pull and snow snake instill strength and diligence -- life-saving traits in terrain that British author Mary Shelley once called “the seat of frost and desolation.”

The peninsula’s winning bid marks the fifth time that Alaska has hosted the games. Fairbanks was the venue in 1982 and 1988; Anchorage in 1974; and neighboring Eagle River in 1996. Opening ceremonies are Sunday in the central peninsula town of Soldotna. More than 30,000 tickets have been sold.

“People really, really wanted this,” recalls Donna Peterson, the Kenai Peninsula school superintendent who was part of an organizing committee four years ago. Convinced that the area’s 44 schools, Olympic-size hockey rink, modern sports center and cross-country ski trails could be parlayed into a winning bid, organizers recruited almost 2,000 volunteers from across the 26,000-square-mile peninsula, stretching into Cook Inlet south of Anchorage.

“When we first started talking about the games, it was just an idea,” said Peterson, who oversees the athletes’ care and comfort committee. The panel is responsible for everything from transportation and shelter to food and medical help.

For every paid worker, there will be 10 volunteers, she says. Top tasks: Ensuring that 1,000 beds are set up in seven schools and delivering 48,000 meals.

Peterson’s daughter, Jamie, 17, has her own checklist. A standout volleyball player who’ll be wearing blue and gold for Team Alaska, Jamie Peterson splurged on a new pair of yellow court shoes. She’s looking forward to meeting new people and competing with other top high school players.

“I hope people come away from here getting to know the community, not just their teammates,” she said. “They’d see what a great, homey place this really is.” Home to active Augustine Volcano, the peninsula is known for civic pride that routinely sees a thousand people show up for a high school choir concert. The games will be played in places as unlike as Homer, an end-of-the-road fishing village on Kachemak Bay, and Girdwood, the resort town that’s home to snowboarder and Olympic bronze medalist Rosey Fletcher.

And with a landmass that would qualify it as the 40th largest state, the Kenai Peninsula sees its share of urban-rural rivalry. Dale Bagley, departing borough mayor, says he has wanted to host the games since his first election in 1999, as a way of unifying his sprawling district.

“The true legacy I see is everyone coming together to put these games on,” Bagley said. An example is Homer’s 15-year wish for an indoor hockey rink, recently fulfilled.

“They haven’t been able to raise money and get off the bubble,” Bagley said. Courtesy of the winter games, Homer received $800,000 toward its new $2-million rink, part of $3.7 million in spending that included a new scoreboard in Soldotna, lighted ski trails, radiant heat at the Kenai ice rink, and 22 school activity buses along with sports, communications and medical gear to be donated to youth groups when the games are over.

Girdwood will host alpine skiing and snowboarding Monday through Thursday. Homer will see curling, basketball, volleyball and cultural events Sunday through Saturday. Badminton, basketball, dog mushing, figure skating, hockey, indoor soccer, snowshoeing, table tennis and cultural events are held Sunday through Saturday in Soldotna.

The Kenai Peninsula competed with Fairbanks in the interior and Juneau in southeast Alaska for a chance at the 2006 games. Bagley said he was convinced his region would win when a site committee arrived at the thunderously packed Kenai Central High School auditorium to find the crowd chanting, “We want the games!”

“There were tears in all eyes,” Bagley said. “That was probably the most inspirational moment of all.”

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Native games

Athletes at the Arctic Winter Games compete in the usual high school sports, but also in traditional native games, including:

* 1-foot high kick: Players start either by running or standing to achieve a take-off in which both feet are no more than shoulder-width apart. The target must be clearly struck by one foot. Landing must be on the same foot used to strike the target, usually a bit of stuffed fur suspended on string from a self-supporting stand.

* Head pull: Two players lie on their stomachs on the floor, facing each other; a centerline is drawn between them. A looped leather thong or belt is placed over the back of the players’ heads above the ears. On a judge’s signal, players rise to a push-up and use body strength to pull backward, pulling the opponent over the centerline.

* Knuckle hop: Starting in a push-up position on the floor, players hold elbows bent at their sides, legs straight, and fists clenched around the thumb. Players travel across the floor by lifting themselves with a series of quick pushes off knuckles and toes; raising the buttocks above the body plane leads to disqualification. Longest distance traveled after one attempt wins.

* Snow snake: From a run or standing, a player approaches a starting line and underhand throws a varnished, sharpened spruce stick down a trough along the surface of a level snowfield.

* Stick pull: Players face each other at an agreed-upon distance and, using right hands first, grip a 12-inch, shaved birch or spruce stick. Players begin by pulling on the stick, which must be kept horizontal. Competition is best of three pulls (right hands, left hands, and, if needed, a third pull whose grip is determined by coin toss). Competitors use bare hands; the stick is greased with lard.

Source: Arctic Winter Games 2006 technical package