Alberta North finishes with third most medals at 2023 Arctic Winter Games

After seven days of competition, Team Alberta North finished the 2023 Wood Buffalo Artic Games third in the medal standings. The team placed in the top three 144 times, winning 42 gold, 60 silver, and 42 bronze medals.

Peace Country curlers Varyk Doepker, Carter Furgeson, Robert Nelson and Cortland Sonnenberg finished top of the boys 2004 or later curling division. Defeating Team Alaska 8 – 3 in the gold medal championship.

Aydin Hebert, Jamie Hensch, Thea Thompson, Mckenna Bowers, Carolyn Head, Anna Jeffs, Macy Robinson, Kaitlyn Senkoe, Elly Stone, Karsyn Utz, Victoria Willsey and Avery Johnson along with the rest of the 2003 or later girls hockey team would also finish with a gold medal in their competition. The team was undefeated in the preliminary and semi-final games, with a couple of blowout games including a 9 – 0 win again Team Nunavut and an 8 – 0 win against Team Alaska, heading into the championship game where they came out on the winning side of a 2 – 1 game against Team Northwest Territories.

Sexsmith curlers Alexandra Collins, Brylee Girard, Lola Rasi and Hayden Young finished second in the 2004 or later girls curling competition, out of the five draws played in the preliminary and sem-final rounds the team only dropped their first round against Team Northwest Territories 7 – 4. The championship round was a rematch between the two teams, with the Team Alberta North coming out on the losing end of a 10 – 4 competition. 

Linden Zaichkowsky, Cy Nelson, Ben Antonio, Kai Ducharme, and Spencer Behnsen are the rest of the 2007 or later boys’ hockey team would also take home silver in their division. The championship game was a rematch for the Alberta North team and Team Northwest Territories with the Alberta team losing 6 -5. While Grande Prairie’s Jake Shewfelt and the 2007 or later male Futsal team also picked up a silver medal in their division, dropping the championship game to team Sapmi 3-0.

Team Yukon finished with the most medals in the competition at 169, including 61 gold, 56 silver and 52 bronze. Team Alaska would win one more medal than the northern Alberta team, finishing with 145, with 58 gold, 22 silver and 43 bronze. Team Northwest Territories finished in fourth place with 106, including 43 gold, 28 silver and 35 bronze.

A full list of results from the seven-day event can be found on the Arctic Winter Games website.

Correction: Jake Shewfelt won silver with the 2007 or later Futsal team. The 2024 Arctic winter games will be held in Mat-Su Borough Alaska, while the 2024 Alberta games will be in Grande Prairie.