Every legacy begins with a story. Ours begins with a man whose strength, discipline and heart shaped a generation, and whose loss revealed the truth about how northern Indigenous athletes were treated.
In the heart of Vuntut Gwich’in territory, a story began that would change northern sport forever. It was built by a community working together to raise strong, resilient Youth. This is the story of the Old Crow Skiers.
Long before modern sport recognized northern endurance, Indigenous paddlers from Canada’s Western Arctic were already proving their strength on some of the hardest waterways and into the world record books.
The foundation for the TEST program was laid in Old Crow, where children and teenagers ran, skied, and trained on their own land, supported by a community that believed in them long before any government did.
In 1970, northern Youth gathered on a circumpolar stage for the first time at the Arctic Winter Games. Dinjii Zhuh teenagers showed the world what our ancestors already knew: our people are strong; our Youth are capable.