The 65th annual World Eskimo-Indian Olympics concluded on Saturday after four days of competition and comradery.
The cultural and sporting event brings people to Fairbanks from around Alaska – and around the globe – to celebrate Indigenous cultures, and it features traditional social games, skills and dances.
From the ear pull to the greased pole walk, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Sports Reporter Drew Blouin covered each day of WEIO 2026, talking with athletes to hear their stories. And he joined KUAC’s Patrick Gilchrist to share some of the highlights.
This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Patrick Gilchrist: So, Drew, you reported on WEIO over the course of several days, right? What was the atmosphere like? Can you describe some of the like sights and sounds, things that you saw?
Drew Blouin: Yeah, Patrick, absolutely. So, when I first walked in, man, I was blown away. This is my first time covering it this year. It was an absolute pleasure to be there. And just from the opening ceremony to the closing, the atmosphere was sensational. Energy from the crowd, the volunteers, everyone involved, it was really through the roof. And when you first walked in, there were souvenir stands. They were filled with gorgeous Native jewelry and art and much more that welcomed you to the floor. And then as you went further, the sound of seal barks happened because that was the athletes supporting each other. And there was clapping, there was cheers, more seal imitations, of course. I mean, the atmosphere kept up all throughout the four days. It was really something to see.
PG: So I saw in your stories that there were some records broken this year, right, including a record that stood for 45 years in the greased pole walk. Can you describe that event, and then can you also tell me a little bit about the athlete who broke the record?
DB: So, as with many of the competitions, that's meant to imitate Native traditions or Native things that they used to use in the past to survive on the land or in the winter. And in this case, it was designed to emulate the balance required to cross a creek on a wet log. And so this young man, Leif Richards, he took a very slow and steady approach. Some of the contestants would go fast and try to just kind of scurry their way across and scurry back. He went very slow. He has a background in ice climbing and mountain climbing, which he picked up just last year. So, he mentioned to me, funnily enough, that last year he only went -2 inches. And this year, he went all the way down on the log and the crowd was tuned in. They were amazed. And then he starts to go back, and he killed it. I mean, it was unbelievable to watch. He made it 184.5 inches. And he was teetering back and forth, but he stayed up, and he went back and then he went back again. And funnily enough, actually, Avery Reece, who won it on the women's side, told me that she heeded what he was doing and she tried to go super slow, too. And that strategy ended up earning her a gold medal, as well, so it was really awesome to watch.
PG: Were there any other events this year that stuck out to you or maybe highlights?
DB: What really stuck out to me was the familial connections that were there. In the toe kick, which was one of the first events, Mila Neely, one of the young competitors, had a locket around her neck. And it turns out, and when I spoke to her after, in the locket, there was a picture of her father, who passed away when she was just 12, and her great-grandmother, Quawatlv, who was a member of the Cherokee tribe and actually walked in the Trail of Tears. She was her five-times great-grandmother. And so she took inspiration from that. And before each jump pretty much, not every time, but most of the time, she would clutch at her locket and draw inspiration from that. And then right before she ended up winning with her final jump, she tossed the locket to her best friend, who was sitting just off the side and supporting her the whole time. And her best friend opened up the locket, so her father and her five-times great-grandmother were able to watch as she earned the gold medal, which I just thought was so incredible. And also, in the ear pull, this gentleman named Frank M. Lane took on his son, Frank L. Lane, for the fourth year in a row. And it turns out that the elder Lane, Frank M., had done the ear pull at Christmas when he was a kid. So compared to, like, the traditions you would think of, like Christmas gift-opening and baking cookies and watching movies, he was doing the ear pull. And years later, he wins his fifth WEIO in a row with the ear pull. And so I think just the family connections that people had and how they inspired them to compete in WEIO was just something that was so cool to see.
PG: So, you're mentioning family connections there. In your stories, though, I noticed, kind of, other recurring themes like sportsmanship, camaraderie, mutual respect between competitors. Can you talk about what you heard from athletes about how they kind of mentally approach the competition?
DB: Yeah, so the games are centered around that, right? They are centered around camaraderie, sportsmanship, as you mentioned, and the mutual respect. And the athletes really embodied that this year. When I spoke to Amber Vaska, the chair of the board, she mentioned that the people competing were just such a pleasure to compete with, she competed as well, and that everyone was just so happy to be there and so supportive of one another. I mentioned the seal barks. That was constant. No matter what happened, no matter what the result was, everyone was so happy for one another. And that's really what has shown through in interviews. When I would ask people about their victories, a lot of times when you ask in sports about a victory, they talk about the game or they talk about the performance. These young people would just talk about how happy they were to be there, how happy they were to support one another, and just what a pleasure it was to be a part of WEIO, which I thought was so incredible. And I spoke to Brittany Woods-Orrison, of Rampart, and she earned WEIO's highest honor that they awarded at the closing ceremonies, which is the A.E. Bud Hagberg Sportsmanship Award. And she said that she's been in this event since she was a kid, and she's had so many people love up on her through so many phases of her life, and that there was just a gratitude that she felt like the only way she could replicate that was by sharing it out to the next generations. And I thought that just really summed it up. She was a perfect example of being so supportive and just being a true fellow to everyone there, and I just thought that was so incredible to see, and it just really summed up the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics and how they were in 2026.