Three medals in by Wednesday, Team NT’s Danica Taylor was pulling her weight for the territory in Arctic sports.
She earned silvers in the open female two-foot high kick and open female arm pull, before taking home gold in the open female one-foot high kick Feb. 1.
The Team NT athlete is from both Yellowknife and Rankin Inlet and said the competition was hard for arm pull, especially when it came to the finals against her coach, Veronica McDonald.
“I really look up to her,” said Taylor, 19. “There were lots of strong competitors from every contingent, Greenland, Alberta North – everywhere – so they were definitely hard to beat.”
After arm pull, the athletes had less than an hour to rest their bodies in preparation for the one-foot high kick, she said.
“That was for sure a hard thing to do,” said Taylor. “I was very tired afterwards. But I talked to my dad and he just said don’t overthink it and just push as hard as you can, so that’s what I did. I was in the top three of the one-foot and then I knew I just wanted to go to the gold, and I’m so glad and I’m so happy that I got it.”
She said her mind was racing as competitors got knocked out, leaving just her and Petra Amossen from Greenland left.
“I had 1,000 thoughts going on,” said Taylor. “Watching my competitor, Petra from Greenland, she had an amazing kick, she floated in the air, she was so good. So she made me a little bit nervous. She had no misses and I had one miss.”
However, Amossen appeared to hurt her back during her final attempts, leaving her run over at seven feet. That left Taylor to hit 7’ 2”, a personal best, to earn gold.
“It hurt to see her getting hurt and getting injured towards one of her last kicks,” said Taylor. “I really looked up to her. She had an amazing performance all week in two-foot, in kneel jump and everything, so it motivated me to push harder and go beyond my personal best. Before this tournament, I’ve only been kicking 6’ 10” in one-foot, so getting 7’ 2” was a great experience, and I’m so glad I got a personal best here.”
In third came Alaska’s Emma Noskey, kicking a 6’ 10”.
“I want to say thank you to everybody who came all the way down to Wood Buffalo,” said Taylor, adding she knows many people had long trips to make it to the Games. “It’s awesome to see everyone back here after a long, long wait.
High on golds early on
By Wednesday at the 2023 Arctic Winter Games, Team NT had 48 medals, trailing first-place Yukon at 80, Alaska at 73 and Alberta North at 60.
Behind them sat Greenland at 24, followed by Sapmi and Nunavik with 11 and Nunavut with 9.
On the bright side, Team NT had 24 golds, just six behind Yukon and in second place overall.
Yellowknife’s Lily Brennan had multiple golds in figure skating, while McDonald had three golds in Arctic sports plus a silver, and Storm Cabell-White had three golds in snowboarding.
Speed skater Sage Acorn had two golds, along with one for skater Erika Pollard.
Ariana Sundberg-Koyina earned a silver in women’s stick pull in Dene games, while Yellowknife’s James Williams had a gold in triple jump and silver in head pull for Arctic sports.
As of press time in hockey Feb. 2, the women’s team was performing strongly three games in, going 2-1, defeating Team Nunavut and Yukon but losing to Alberta North, who led the division.
The U19 boys were in a three-way tie for first place with Nunavut and Alberta North, all sitting at a 3 and 1 record. Semifinal action was scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 2.
The U16 boys, on the other hand, were leading their division heading into semis with a perfect 4-0 record, outscoring their opponents 27-11 along the way. They were set to play Yukon, in fourth at a 1-3 record.
