Juneau resident Kyle Worl arrived home this week with some new hardware.
Worl, 27, the Native Youth Olympics coach and World Eskimo Games heavyweight, won the gold ulu in three Arctic Sports disciplines — Alaska High Kick, knuckle hop, kneel jump — at the 2018 Arctic Winter Games last week in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.
Only one other competitor tallied more points in the 10 different games that kept Worl busy all five days of the international event.
In the last two years at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, Worl has placed first in the all-around open male. He also won two ulus in the last AWG in Nuuk, Greenland, and scored four in 2014 in Fairbanks.
Two others in the Alaska high kick also received gold ulus. After Worl and two others made contact with a ball suspended 7 feet in the air, organizers moved the ball up to 7 feet, 4 inches. After all failed to hit that height, it was moved down to 7 feet, 3 inches.
“We all missed at 7 feet, 3 inches, so at that point, that make it a three-way tie,” Worl said. “Which they usually try to break ties, but we just kept getting out at the same height (and) had the same number of misses.”
Unlike in the Alaskan High Kick, Worl was the clear winner in the knuckle hop. Worl’s first-place finish of 167 feet surpassed his old record by 22 feet.
Worl’s father, Rodney Worl, holds the world record in the knuckle hop at 191 feet, 10 inches. The record has stood at the Arctic Winter Games since 1988.
“That’s my ultimate goal is trying to reach my dad’s world record but it’s one of the longest-standing records in the Games,” Worl said. “With this performance, I feel like I’m finally in sight of actually breaking his record, about 25 feet off, which seems much more doable than this last WEIO which was like 45 feet off.”
Worl said the crowd plays a big role in the success of athletes in this sport.
“When you’re doing good and you starting making some distance, the crowd really starts getting pumped up and they start cheering for you and yelling and clapping,” Worl said. “It’s a total adrenaline rush where I don’t feel anything in my knuckles at all. … What I do start to feel is my muscles starting to give up out, and my muscles starting to burn. And that’s the hard part.”
A couple hours away, Finn Morley and Lindsay McTague were busy winning gold ulus of their own.
Morley placed first in two snowshoeing events: the 2.5 kilometer and short distance combined.
McTague, an eighth-grader, won first in the 2.5K and 5K snowshoe races.
“It was just really cool because I came into it as an alternate for (Team) Alaska,” McTague said. “I did a lot of training and once I got there I was really excited to race and it was just perfect. The trails were awesome and so fun.”
McTague finished the 2.5 km race in 14 minutes, 59.20 seconds — nine seconds in front Team Alaska teammate Leah Fallon. She finished her 5K in 29:09.10, almost 50 seconds faster than the time of Fallon, who again came in second.
For the full list of winners, visit https://awg2018.org/.
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com.
