The 2024 Arctic Winter Games will be held in the Matanuska-Susitna District of Alaska, the International Arctic Winter Games Committee announced in a press release.
The Arctic Winter Games are held every two years as a circumpolar sporting and cultural event for young people. Hosting the AWG is no easy task with 2,000 athletes and 2,000 volunteers involved in the week-long event. The indigenous cultural festival brings together participants from countries across the circumpolar north to compete in 21 traditional Arctic sports.
Alaska usually hosts the games every eight to ten years and it had already been decided that the 2024 games would be held in Alaska again. Thus, individual municipalities and regions could apply to host the Games.
The virtual bid for the “Mat-Su Borough 2024 Arctic Winter Games” was “extremely professional and well received by the AWG International Committee,” said John Flynn, president of the AWG in the press release.
“We are very much looking forward to meeting our northern neighbours in person in this beautiful part of the world during the 2024 Games.” announced the organizing committee.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough, located north of Anchorage, is a region nearly the size of Scotland and one of the fastest growing regions in Alaska.
Hosting the 2024 Arctic Winter Games will mark the seventh time Alaska has hosted the event. The last event was in Fairbanks in 2014.
The next games are in Wood Buffalo, in the Canadian state of Alberta. These have been moved up a year from 2022 to the end of January 2023 because of Covid-19.
Heiner Kubny, PolarJournal
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