With much fanfare, Daisy Vanblarcom prepared for the final one-foot high kick competition in the Native Youth Olympics on Saturday. She needed to jump, kick a suspended ball with one foot and then land on the same foot.
The highest height she hit was 87 inches, which went above her personal record – and won her first place. The bleachers were filled with people from all corners of Alaska, but for Vanblarcom, they were familiar faces. Vanblarcom, who competed in six events this year and placed first in two, said making friends with other athletes and coaches is a part of her success.
"I compete a lot better when I know everybody and when I'm comfortable around everyone," Vanblarcom said.
The Native Youth Olympics was held over three-days in Anchorage last weekend. High school students participated in a dozen competitions, each representing a different Alaska Native subsistence activity or skill. The event started more than fifty years ago, with a few dozen participants. This year, it brought about 450 athletes to the Alaska Airlines Center – a record number since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joanna and Jen Hopson have been working to revive the games in the North Slope region. They created a program to help develop and train athletes from Utqiaġvik and neighboring villages. They held the regional Native Youth Olympic Games in Utqiaġvik this winter – for the first time in about 15 years.
Joanna Hopson said that the games have been helping students gain confidence and come out of their shell.
"Our athletes that are coming in, they come in to us at practice so reserved, timid," she said. "As they're starting to learn more of their cultural games, they're starting to learn that courage. They're starting to learn what it means to be who you are, to accept who you are, where you're at, and then to grow from that."
Participating in the Native Youth Olympics is often a family tradition. Kya Ahlers, a coach for Salamatof on the Kenai Peninsula, said she trains some of her siblings and is always proud to see them and her other athletes succeed. This year, Ahlers saw her younger sister Abigail Semaken place first in the toe kick competition.
"It's really a good confidence booster, and really good to see all these young women competing. And I mean, sometimes I do see some girls getting themselves down. But then once I see that, there's already other girls from other teams coming to comfort her and empowering her again," Ahlers said. "That really warms my heart."
Girls lifting each other up was something on the mind of Camylle Hull from Fairbanks. Hull was on the team with Isabel Dosch and Calli Bundschuh, and together they took third place in the wrist carry competition. Dosch wrapped her wrist around a stick, and Hull and Bundschuh grabbed the opposite sides of it, carrying Dosch for 202 feet and 3 inches.
"Our team was an all-girls team, the only all-girls team that got on the podium, and we got further than most of the guys down there," Hull said. "I think it's really cool for us, showing that we can do what they can do, like the guys."
But the community of the games as a whole was the main highlight athletes kept bringing up. Anastasha Wilde of Anchorage, who took second place in a two-foot high kick competition, said the games helped her improve her social life.
"My favorite part about it is that we all come together, and we're participating together, not apart, and you get to connect with other people and make new friends," Wilde said. "It's not about winning. It's about beating your personal records and improving, not for yourself, but improving for the others around you, so you could help them out."