Top of the World Skiing

CLUB HISTORY

The Mackenzie Delta and the the Inuvik Ski Club have an illustrious past. In 1965, when the town of Inuvik was less than a decade old, Father Jean Marie Mouchet, a Roman Catholic Priest from France who was living in Old Crow, held the first skiing sessions. Among the participants were Shirley and Sharon Firth, Canadian Olympians to be.

With monies from Ottawa, Mouchet began the Territorial Experimental Ski Training (TEST) program with the help of Bjorger Petterson, a coach with the Canadian Ski Association. The stars of this program, the Firth sisters went on to win 48 Canadian Championships and competed in 7 Olympic games combined.

The TEST program was a huge success. In the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, seven of the nine athletes on the Canadian Nordic team were from the Mackenzie Delta. Unfortunately, the TEST program was disbanded.

But skiing continues in the Mackenzie Delta...

Photo of young skiers in Old Crow in the 1960's - courtesy of the Canadian Museum of Civilization[http://www.civilization.ca/tresors/ethno/credits_e.html]

Skiers in Inuvik: 1984.
Credit: T. Macintosh/NWT Archive - from the Prince of Whales Northern Heritage Centre website [http://pwnhc.learnnet.nt.ca/photogallery/Galleries/Communities/Inuvik%20Gallery/inuvik.html]

Sharon and Shirley Firth on the Inuvik trails, 1984.
Credit: T. Macintosh/NWT Archive - from the Prince of Whales Northern Heritage Centre website [http://pwnhc.learnnet.nt.ca/photogallery/Galleries/Sports%20and%20Recreation%20Gallery.html]

For more information:

• Video "Out of the North - Top of the World Skiers" (NWT MACA news release )
• Book "Guts and Glory: the arctic skiers who challenged the world" by Sally Manning. Read this book review by Catherine Pigott .
• An article on the Firth sisters from the Cross Country Canada website
• An article on Father J.M. Mouchet on the website of the Canadian Museum of Civilization