Inside the packed school gymnasium in Whitehorse, nobody made a sound.<\/p>\n
Petra Amossen, 19, from Uummannaq, Greenland, stared intently at a small ball covered in seal fur hanging by a string 6 feet 8 inches off the floor. All she had to do was kick the ball with both feet and land cleanly on both feet to set a world record in a sport not widely known outside Arctic regions: the two-foot high kick.<\/p>\n
Seconds later, Ms. Amossen slapped the ball with her toes and landed like a gymnast on the hardwood floor, sending the crowd wild.<\/p>\n
Nicole Johnson, the head official and a former two-foot high kick champion from Anchorage, offered Ms. Amossen the flag of Greenland and displayed the Alaskan flag alongside her. A Greenlander and an American, a Kalaaleq and an Inupiat, side by side.<\/p>\n
This moment would not have been so poignant in the past.<\/p>\n
Since they began in 1970, the Arctic Winter Games have been a sporting event for youths from across the circumpolar North to compete in and to connect. The biennial event (soon to be triennial) features an array of winter sports like hockey and skiing, and also several indoor sports like basketball and futsal.<\/p>\n
But Arctic sports, like the two-foot high kick, knuckle hop, Alaskan high kick and airplane, are crowd favorites. They showcase Inuit games based on the skills needed to live a traditional life on the remote and unforgiving tundra.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you were out hunting with a partner, you want them to be just as strong and as smart as you, so you\u2019re going to encourage them to be that person for you and you want to be that person for them,\u201d said Ms. Johnson, who set the women\u2019s world record in two-foot high kick in 1989.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat way of life, through our games, keeps that sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns about the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its protections over the Arctic spurred a new arms race as countries with Arctic territories tried to prepare for a newly uncertain future.<\/p>\n
The chill has been felt across a region that is predominantly inhabited by Indigenous people who have long strived to defend their independence and keep the troubles that great powers can bring with them at bay.<\/p>\n
But as this year\u2019s Arctic Games began, the tensions were hard to ignore.<\/p>\n
While the Games were underway in March, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood inside a military hangar<\/a> in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and pledged 32 billion Canadian dollars for Arctic defense across Northern Canada.<\/p>\n Three days later he met with the leaders<\/a> of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway in Oslo to strengthen trade, energy and security ties with the Nordic countries.<\/p>\n At the opening ceremony of the Arctic Winter Games, a Canadian fighter jet roared over athletes and dignitaries. Among them was Peter Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, who spent three hours of pageantry swaddled in a down jacket and a beanie in temperatures hovering around minus 5 degrees Celsius.<\/p>\n Most teams attending the Games felt the political tension. The Greenlandic delegation barred its athletes from talking about politics to the media \u201cto protect and take care of our athletes and performers,\u201d Aviaaja Geisler, their head of mission, said in an email.<\/p>\n The tensions over the Trump administration\u2019s stance toward the Arctic was not the only source of geopolitical strife hanging over the competition.<\/p>\n Yamal-Nenets, a region in Northern Russia, has been part of the Games since 2004 and was scheduled to host this year\u2019s competition, but the Arctic Winter Games International Committee ruled the region ineligible after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n Tor Vidar Rismo and June Mariell Hansen traveled almost 24 hours from North Cape, Norway, to watch their daughter, Julie, play futsal. She represented Team S\u00e1pmi, an area traditionally inhabited by the Indigenous S\u00e1mi people that crosses Norway, Sweden and Finland.<\/p>\n Because they live so close to Russia, they said they shared similar concerns to those of Greenlanders and Canadians toward the United States.<\/p>\n Russia can \u201ctake Norway in a couple of days,\u201d Mr. Rismo said. Ms. Hansen says she cannot understand how world leaders \u201cthink they can take whatever they want.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in the gymnasium, a group of men competed in the knuckle hop, a grueling Arctic sport where competitors in plank position move in a circle around the floor on their knuckles, using their toes to propel them forward.<\/p>\n The motion is intended to mimic the movement of a seal on ice. The crowd claps to the beat of the athletes\u2019 fists punching the ground. Blood and skin are cleaned off the floor after each participant. They show off their blisters and calluses as a badge of honor. Greenlanders, Americans and Canadians beam with pride, hug and high-five each other.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no borders between our Indigenous peoples,\u201d Ms. Johnson said. \u201cWe are all there for each other, to support each other, regardless of who is in power in politics. We have zero interest in what leadership says outside of our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Pat Kane<\/a> is a photojournalist based in Yellowknife. He lives on the traditional land of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.<\/p>\n Trans Canada<\/p>\n Oil-rich Alberta will hold a vote in October<\/a> asking its citizens if they want to remain a part of the country, or if they prefer to hold a binding referendum on seceding, Matina Stevis-Gridneff, The Times\u2019s Canada bureau chief, reported.<\/p>\n Outside the city of Thetford Mines, Quebec, in a region that once supplied the world with asbestos, workers are drilling underground<\/a> in search for an unusual and potentially vast new source of clean energy.<\/p>\n An Air France plane was sent to Montreal<\/a> because a passenger from the Democratic Republic of Congo was on board. The U.S. has closed its borders to recent visitors to the African country.<\/p>\n When SpaceX goes public, the Royal Bank of Canada will play point on the country\u2019s deep-pocketed government investment funds. RBC is one of 23 banks hired by Elon Musk<\/a> to take part in the I.P.O.<\/p>\n How are we doing?
We\u2019re eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to nytcanada@nytimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n