The NWT has some great athletes. We've seen them in action at the Arctic Winter Games, Canada Winter/Summer Games and North American Indigenous Games over the years.
But a group of athletes was busy doing their thing in Quebec City late last month and showed that age is merely a number.
Team NT's latest venture into the wild athletic yonder saw close to 60 people from Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and Fort Simpson take part in the Canada 55-Plus Games from Aug. 27 to 30. When all was said and done, some of them showed they knew how to get the job done.
"I think everyone who went had a great time," said Joan Hirons, the NWT's director for the Canada Senior Games Association, the body which looks after the overall event.
When it comes to the medal haul, golf ended up being the most profitable in terms of podiums with six in total. Trina Ohler was a gold medallist in the women's 65-plus category, while Norma Jarvis was also a gold medallist in the women's Callaway format. That's where each hole has a maximum score attached to it and the worst scores on holes can be deducted based on what a player's final gross score is.
Bob Ross won himself a silver medal in men's 55-plus low net and Colleen Pura snagged a silver herself in the 60-plus women's low gross event. Wendy Bisaro was a bronze medallist in the women's 75-plus low net competition, while Owen Rowe also took bronze in the men's 60-plus low net.
On the track, Wayne Guy was the best individual medallist as he came home with three new medals: gold in the men's long jump and silvers in the 100-metre and 200-metre dashes, all in the men's 65-plus category.
John Soderberg won a gold medal in bowling and Mike Pickles won himself two medals in table tennis: one gold and one bronze. On the big tennis courts, Dennis and Joan Bevington scored themselves a bronze medal in mixed doubles.
"We only had three track athletes and two swimmers this year and those are usually our best events for medals," said Hirons. "But I'm still really pleased overall with how our entire team competed."
Aside from the medals, there were some other noteworthy results, such as the men's hockey team beating a team from Alberta and the 65-plus women's curling team winning a game for the very first time at the Games as they, too, beat a team from Alberta.
Ordinarily, anyone who competes at the 55-Plus Games will have qualified from a regional competition the year before; the event is a biennial competition. But the NWT doesn't have such a portal and instead, athletes from the territory submit an expression of interest to Hirons and she said that usually happens by Jan. 15 of the year of the Games.
"That's so we have an idea of who's interested in going," she said.
There were very few issues on the ground in terms of problems, save for some traffic hiccups, Hirons added, and the focus now is on the 2026 event, which is scheduled for Winnipeg.
"I suspect we'll have a bigger team for those Games," she said. "It's closer and won't be as expensive as it was to travel to Quebec City. It's important for people to know that these Games are happening and that seniors get the chance to stay active."
