Arctic Winter Games put spotlight on Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna Borough

Flags of the nations with delegations to the Arctic Winter Games, along with the Alaska flag, hang from the chalet while cross-country skiers race by at Government Peak Recreation Area. The weeklong event drew 2,000 competitors from Alaska, Canada, Greenland and northern Scandinavia. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

As more than 2,000 young athletes gathered this week in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, plus armies of coaches, officials, family members and dignitaries from around the circumpolar north, local officials hope the result has been more than competition and fun.

For political leaders in the West Virginia-sized borough just north of Anchorage, the 2024 Arctic Winter Games held from March 10 to 16 provided an opportunity to make a good impression on an international crowd.

The delegation from Nunavik, the northern region of Quebec, files into Wasilla’s Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center next to Team Northwest Territories during the March 10 opening ceremonies for the 2024 Arctic Winter Games. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

“We are so excited to have you come to our beautiful part of Alaska. We think it’s the most beautiful, and hopefully, after you have visited, you will agree with us,” Borough Mayor Edna DeVries said in a recorded statement played at the March 10 opening ceremonies .

Rep. David Wilson, R-Wasilla, and his wife Alita pose at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center before the start of the March 10, 2024, opening ceremonies at the 2004 Arctic Winter Games. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

The Arctic Winter Games are something of a mini-Olympics held among far-north regions, blending mainstream winter sports with traditional Indigenous sports. The first Arctic Winter Games were held in 1970 in Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories. They are held every two years, though the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled that schedule in recent years. Several Alaska communities have hosted the Arctic Winter Games in the past : Anchorage, Fairbanks, Eagle River-Chugiak and the Kenai Peninsula Borough. This was the first turn for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Within Alaska, some officials said, the 2024 Arctic Winter Games have helped bring attention to the special characteristics of the borough that – even as it supplies commuting workers to Anchorage — has become Alaska’s second-most populated region.

A young athlete competes on March 14, 2024, in the Alaskan High Kick, one of the traditional Indigenous sports events held at the Arctic Winter Games. The events were staged at Colony Middle School in Palmer. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

“I think a lot of people think of us as a sleeping center for Anchorage, and we’re a lot more than that,” said state Sen. David Wilson, R-Wasilla.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough had over 115,000 residents as of July 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That eclipses the population of the Fairbanks North Star Borough , which had previously been in the No. 2 spot, according to the Census Bureau.

Wilson, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said the Arctic Winter Games spotlight could help spur legislative funding of capital needs identified by local officials as high priorities .

Javva Mathias Lemet Kalstad-Bjorgard of the Scandinavia’s Team Sampi crests a hill in the lead of his sprint heat on March 14, 2024, during the Arctic Winter Games cross-country skiing competition at Government Peak Recreation Area. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Roads generally top that list, Wilson said as he and his wife Alita waited in the Curtis D. Menard Sports Center for the start of the opening ceremonies.

“We’re still growing, and our roads were never designed to handle the traffic loads of today,” he said.

There are capital needs other than roads, Wilson said. As an example, he cited a proposed Wasilla-Palmer water system connection as a priority for state funding. The borough is seeking a state contribution of $2 million in funds for the project, which could improve service reliability in light of past weather-related interruptions.

A young athlete prepares to leap forward as he competes on March 14, 2024 in the knee jump, one of the traditional Indigenous sports events staged at the Arctic Winter Games in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

The Legislature has already provided Arctic Winter Games-related support.

To help it stage and manage the weeklong event, lawmakers appropriated $2 million to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough over two fiscal years, borough officials said. The budget that lawmakers approved last year also included a $1.5 million grant to the Arctic Winter Games host committee. And there is other indirect state support, such as the transportation assistance provided by the Alaska National Guard.

Infrastructure and operations support also came from the borough itself, the borough’s school district and other entities.

Cedar Ruckel, an Anchorage skier and member of Team Alaska, shows his collection of pins from visiting delegations to the 2024 Arctic Winter Games during a break in competition March 14 at Government Peak Recreation Area. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Borough-funded work at Government Peak Recreation Area expanded parking and improved the stadium area, and the region’s telecommunications company, MTA, signed on as a major sponsor and enhanced connections to some of the sites. Among the services provided by the school district was lodging; it has allowed schools to be used as living quarters for visiting athletes and extended its spring break to help accommodate the event.

Although the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is much more urban than many other Arctic Winter Games host areas of the past, it still lacks sufficient infrastructure to stage all events. For some sports contests, organizers had to rely on Anchorage or Eagle River venues, such as the national-class biathlon range at Anchorage’s Kincaid Park.

Even if they made occasional forays to Anchorage, Arctic Winter Games were enthusiastic about what they found in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough

Brendan Hanley, the Parliament of Canada member representing the Yukon Territory, and Ed Gillis, father of cross-country skiing competitor Sitka Land-Gillis, pose on March 14, 2024, at Government Peak Recreation Center, the venue for Arctic Winter Games cross-country skiing events. Hanley and Gillis are both from Whitehorse. Hanley was one of several government officials from Canada who attended the Arctic Winter Games. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

Ed Gillis, who traveled from Whitehorse to watch his son compete at Government Peak in cross-country skiing for Team Yukon, said the games were “beautifully organized, and it’s a beautiful place to have it, here in the mountains.”

Gillis said he has traveled a lot to Skagway and Haines, Southeast Alaska cities that are connected by road to Whitehorse, and he knows about Anchorage and Fairbanks. But he would have never heard of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough but for the Arctic Winter Games, he said.

Now he is a fan, he said. “It’s got its own lifestyle and its own culture,” he said.

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