‘I was not expecting this at all,’ says Team NT gold medallist figure skater

Team NT banked seven more gold ulus at the 2026 Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse on Tuesday.

Snowboarders, biathletes and figure skaters shone, the latter including Yellowknife’s Aven Ohokannoak.

The 14-year-old won the U18 Short Program Class 1, and was thrilled about her achievement.

“I feel pretty good —I’m really happy — I was not expecting this at all,” Ohokannoak told CKLB, as she politely obliged photographers by biting on her ulu-shaped gold medal.

“I just didn’t think of it as a competition. I just was out there, trying to do my best. Like, I just thought of it as just performing for people, not really against people.”

And how did the Sir John Franklin High School student prepare for the Games?

“I listened to my music (Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata) over and over and just go through it in my head many times — and to just have fun.”

Asked who she would like to thank for helping her along her way, the former Cambridge Bay, Nunavut resident mentioned her parents, “all my friends who supported me,” and her coaches.

And her advice to any aspiring young female skaters is to “have fun, work hard and just be yourself out there.”

She added: “Like, if you fall, just get up and keep going. You know, it’s not always having a clean program.”

And has the gold medalist ever fallen? “Many, many times,” she said with a laugh.

Meanwhile, Jaxin Coombs took gold in Ski Biathlon’s U15 male sprint, and Kobe White came out on top in Snowboarding Banked Slalom U14 Male.

Coombs, from Hay River, told Team NT it felt “great after a hard season of difficult temperatures” to win his first Arctic Winter Games gold ulu in his third Games appearance, following Wood Buffalo in 2023 and Mat-Su in 2024.

White, who won silver in rail jam earlier in the week, told Team NT it had been “really cold” during the morning’s practice runs, limiting his time to prepare for the banked slalom.

Team NT reported that multiple outdoor events in Whitehorse only just squeaked above their -20C cold-weather cut-off on Tuesday.

The 13-year-old said he was proud of himself for his achievement and has dreams of eventually competing at the Canada Winter Games.

Three of Tuesday’s four remaining gold ulus were supplied by speed skaters Russell MacKay, Brigid Murphy and Peter Mahon.

Murphy and Mahon won the 500-metre Individual U19 category, while MacKay won the 400-metre Individual U15 Male race.

The seventh gold ulu went to Abigail Arey, of Aklavik, picking up her second title of the week by winning Dene Games’ snow snake event on Mount Sima.

Top-3 medal standings as of Tuesday night:

Alaska, 83; Yukon, 70; and Northwest Territories, 30.

– with files from Team NT