A new category has been added to the Arctic Winter Games to include women over 18 in the Dene Games and participants say it’s historic, exciting and long overdue.
The Dene Games includes traditional sports like stick pull, snowsnake, hand games and finger pull. In previous years female athletes could only compete until age 18, but Monday marked the start of the open women category in the AWG’s Dene Games.
Shawna McLeod of Team NT won the category’s first gold ulu.
McLeod, 32, is from Fort Providence, N.W.T., and currently lives in Fort Simpson. She first competed in the games 18 years ago.
“There really
