More than 500 athletes, trainers and officials launched the first Arctic Winter Games in Yellowknife in 1970 — but the event will have to skip its 50th anniversary due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The biennial games were designed to provide athletes from the North with opportunities for training and competition. Athletes for the first games came from the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska. Athletes are now included from more places across the Arctic Circle, including other Canadian provinces, Greenland and parts of Russia. Here's a video, provided by the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, of the first games in 1970.

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