Knuckle hop and two-foot high kick: the Olympics for Alaska Natives breathe new life into ancient games

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/17/alaska-world-eskimo-indian-olympics-arctic-sports

Knuckle hop and two-foot high kick: the Olympics for Alaska Natives breathe new life into ancient games

The annual World Eskimo Indian Olympics draw hundreds of Indigenous athletes to partake in traditional games and celebrate their heritage

Melissa Hellmann
Fri 17 Jul 2026 07.00 EDT

As Nicole Johnson prepared to compete in the Alaska sports arena, she visualized propelling into the air and kicking the ball with both of her feet simultaneously. The Iñupiaq athlete was partaking in the Arctic game of two-foot high kick, long practiced by her community of northern Alaska Natives. When she kicked the ball made of seal skin that dangled from a kickstand, the crowd erupted in cheers. That day in July 1989 at the World Eskimo Indian Olympics (WEIO), Johnson set the women’s world record in the sport by striking the target at 6ft 6in.

For this year’s event, at age 57, she will compete in the dene stick pull, where she and another participant will hold on to the center of a stick covered in grease and attempt to wrest the object from their opponent.

An annual multiday sporting event held in Fairbanks, Alaska – held this year from 15 to 18 July – WEIO draws hundreds of Indigenous athletes who play traditional games that originated from Alaska, Greenland, Siberia and Canada. The two-foot high kick, for instance, is rooted in the long-distance communication methods developed by Johnson’s ancestors. Historically, messengers who were too far away to be heard would kick both feet in the air to signal to villagers that hunters had successfully caught a whale.

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