Team NT’s speed skaters won all four Arctic Winter Games titles available over the 1,000-metre distance on Monday, setting multiple Games records in the process.
Lindsey Stipdonk, Yuma McEachern, Brigid Murphy and Peter Mahon all took gold ulus at the Canada Games Centre in Whitehorse.
Russell Mackay and Seiya McEachern each took silver. Leah Wood won bronze.
For Yuma McEachern, the victory also meant breaking an Arctic Winter Games record set by brother Seiya two years earlier.
Yuma’s new time of 1:44.85 took nearly two seconds off the 1:46.52 produced by Seiya in Alaska in 2024.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
“Hopefully I’ll set more in the following days,” Yuma said.
“But it’s great to set some records – the same one that my brother set, you know, carry on his legacy. It was great to have Seiya as a role model last Arctics, and I’m just glad I can follow in those footsteps.”
Stipdonk, similarly, beat a 2024 record set by Alberta North’s Ola Gawlak, who skated 1,000m in 1:51.03. Stipdonk did it in 1:45.72, crushing the old mark.
The 1,000m as a race depends to a large extent on strategy, and athletes often slow themselves on purpose in the early laps to avoid burning too much energy too early. As a result, finish times can vary wildly depending on how skaters choose to approach each event.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
“It could start off slower. It could be really fast,” said Stipdonk, setting out the uncertainty with which athletes approach the 1,000m.
Both Murphy and Mahon said they had learned from their opening day of 2026 Arctic Winter Games racing.
Murphy said she had “learned how to trust myself a lot more” after a 1,000m final that start extremely slowly until she pushed herself into an early sprint, building a lead she held all the way to the finish.
Mahon said he had “really enjoyed the racing” but queried the Arctic Winter Games’ prevailing philosophy that “it’s not about the medal.”
“I really wanted the medal,” said Mahon.
“But now, in hindsight, the racing was kind-of the most fun of it.”
