Five Western Alaska athletes will make their way to Greenland next year after earning spots on Team Alaska for the 2016 Arctic Winter Games at the Western Interior Cross-country Ski and Biathlon championships.
Skiers and biathletes from across Western Alaska and the Interior gathered in White Mountain late last week for the event.
Nome’s Bianca Trowbridge won the Biathlon. Trowbridge, and her coach Keith Conger say it took a season of intense training that paid off.
Trowbridge: “At the beginning of the season I had a goal, and it was to make it to Arctic Winter Games, and I worked as much as I could to get there.”
Conger: “Increased her training, 3-4 fold from the past, had a determination that I’ve never had in any other athlete that I’ve ever coached, she was as motivated as I’ve ever seen. Her goal was to be number one in the biathlon, in the state of Alaska, and she achieved that goal, and has a ticket now to go to Greenland as a ski biathlon.”
The teams are part of the Western Interior Ski Biathlon Association, or WISA. Teams from Galena, Manley, Nenana, Gambell and Savoonga, Shishmaref, Koyuk, and Nome competed in White Mountain.
The Arctic Winter Games begin March 6th, 2016 in Nuuk Greenland.
Matthew Smith is a reporter at KNOM in Nome.
