SA国际影视传媒

Skip to content

"It was a matter of time": North American Indigenous Games postponed for one year (updated)

2703nai81
Deanne Whenham won gold for the NWT in the U16 girls golf competition at the 2017 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) in Toronto. She will remain the reigning champion for at least one more year as the host society for the 2020 edition and the NAIG Council both decided to postpone things for at least one year. photo courtesy of Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT

Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect the proper age categories for a re-scheduled NAIG. The original paragraph has been deleted because it was incorrect.

Add another log to the fire, if you will, because there's another Games which won't be happening this year.

But unlike the Arctic Winter Games, which were gutted altogether, the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) still plans on having some semblance of competition in a year's time.

The host society for the 2020 edition in Halifax and the NAIG Council decided to postpone the Games for one year, meaning everything will happen in 2021. The announcement was made on Wednesday morning through a press release from the host society.

In the release, Tex Marshall, the host society's president, stated that the collective goal was to keep everyone safe and healthy.

SA国际影视传媒淭o abide by the recommendations and guidance of the Nova Scotia government and its healthcare professionals is critical to slowing and eliminating this pandemic, even if it means the delay of something amazing,SA国际影视传媒 he said.

Aaron Wells, executive director of the Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT, sits on the NAIG Council as the NWT representative and said the council had a conference call to discuss what was happening.

SA国际影视传媒淭he chief public health officer in Nova Scotia had made the recommendation that we consider postponing the Games for a year and that's what was agreed to,SA国际影视传媒 he said. SA国际影视传媒淣ow, we work toward 2021.SA国际影视传媒

Deanne Whenham won gold for the NWT in the U16 girls golf competition at the 2017 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) in Toronto. She will remain the reigning champion for at least one more year as the host society for the 2020 edition and the NAIG Council both decided to postpone things for at least one year. photo courtesy of Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT
Deanne Whenham won gold for the NWT in the U16 girls golf competition at the 2017 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) in Toronto. She will remain the reigning champion for at least one more year as the host society for the 2020 edition and the NAIG Council both decided to postpone things for at least one year.
photo courtesy of Aboriginal Sports Circle of the NWT

The future of the Games had been discussed for some time before making the decision on Wednesday, he added, and that there was still a small push to try and have the Games happen in July.

SA国际影视传媒淭he postponement is the lesser of two evils in a way,SA国际影视传媒 he said. SA国际影视传媒淭here could have been an outright cancellation, like what happened with the Arctic Winter Games, but all things considered, this is the best plan of action.SA国际影视传媒

Jordee Reid is the chef de mission for Team NT and she said the postponement was expected.

SA国际影视传媒淚t was a matter of time,SA国际影视传媒 she said. SA国际影视传媒淲e've seen how everything has gone so far and you just can't take the risk. We were still moving forward at the beginning of the month with our preparations but now we have some time to plan.SA国际影视传媒

That's what makes this so much different than the Arctic Winter Games deal, she added.

SA国际影视传媒淭his wasn't like the Arctic Winter Games, where it sneaked up on them and they had no choice but to cancel,SA国际影视传媒 she said. SA国际影视传媒淲e still had a few months and now, we have an whole year to make a plan and make sure we're totally ready.SA国际影视传媒

One thing the NAIG Council agreed upon was allowing athletes the chance to come back and compete, even though they would have aged out. The NAIG Council and host society both agreed to raise the age limit for each sport by one year to allow for athletes who would have missed out a chance to play.

For example, if a sport had U16 and U19 categories, they will now be bumped to U17 and U20 respectively.

Reid supports that idea.

SA国际影视传媒淲e were lagging behind a bit because we only had three sports where the athletes were picked but imagine the other jurisdictions who may have had a lot of athletes already chosen,SA国际影视传媒 she said. SA国际影视传媒淚nvolving them, even if they're just a year older, is great.SA国际影视传媒

Wells said the next step is to tell the various territorial sports organizations (TSO) what will happen from here on in.

SA国际影视传媒淲e'll be getting lots of questions from the TSO's and we'll try and get them as many answers as we can,SA国际影视传媒 he said. SA国际影视传媒淚'm hoping to have more details by early next week.SA国际影视传媒



About the Author: James McCarthy

I'm the managing editor with SA国际影视传媒 and have been so since 2022.
Read more



(or

SA国际影视传媒

) document.head.appendChild(flippScript); window.flippxp = window.flippxp || {run: []}; window.flippxp.run.push(function() { window.flippxp.registerSlot("#flipp-ux-slot-ssdaw212", "Black Press Media Standard", 1281409, [312035]); }); }