Olympian Liam Gill’s play-filled tour of the Northwest Territories
For Olympic snowboarder Liam Gill, sport is about so much more than competition, or physical prowess. It’s about connection, community, and opportunity.
Gill grew up in Calgary, but has deep connections to the Northwest Territories. He proudly represents the Dehcho Dene as a member of the Liidlii Kue First Nation.
Since his Olympic debut at Beijing 2022, where he was Team Canada’s lone competitor in men’s snowboard halfpipe, Gill has been travelling to the NWT every year to spend time with the snowboarding community and share his experiences as a high-performance athlete, while also connecting with his family and culture.
In May, Gill released a short film entitled Gill Crescent to show how the sport of snowboarding is growing within, and resonating with, Indigenous communities in the north.
Given Gill’s roots in the NWT, he was a natural fit for an Olympic Day-inspired visit to schools throughout the territory.
Deh Gah School in Fort Providence, NWT, received an Olympic Day Grant from the Canadian Olympic Committee to support their after-school sport programming. Not only does the program provide an opportunity for physical activity for youth, but it also offers employment and professional development opportunities for older students.
“They have to apply, create a resume, and go through a job interview,” said physical literacy coordinator Thorsten Gohl, who submitted the grant application. “We put them through training, including first aid training. They learn to run our sport programming, and the younger kids look up to them.”
Deh Gah School was happy to share Gill’s visit with fellow northern communities, and the 21-year-old made stops not only in Fort Providence, but also Kakisa and Hay River. In Fort Providence, Gill also made a point to visit a local memorial monument to residential school victims.
Gill gave short presentations about his experience as an Olympic snowboarder, but most importantly, he did a lot of playing, which, after all, is the foundation of every sport.
He may be an Olympic snowboarder, but during the school visits, you could find him playing table tennis and badminton, doing yoga, and performing front flips off a swingset in front of an excited crowd of kids.
Despite it being summer, Gill was still able to leave a snowboard-specific impact as well.
“In Kakisa, the principal said, ‘Oh, we have a little slope in the back, maybe I can get some snowboards!’” said Gohl, “She’s going to work with the community to try to build out that hill so there’s a little slope for learning to snowboard.”
Travelling from classroom to classroom, Gill showed videos, signed photos, and answered questions.
“I thought some of the questions from the little kids were going to be like, ‘What’s your favourite animal?’ said Gohl with a chuckle, “But there were some really good questions like: ‘Do you like your sport all the time?”
While Thorsten admits that the younger kids may have been enthralled by any friendly 21-year-old who wanted to play with them, for the older kids, it was important for them to hear Gill’s story as an Indigenous Olympian.
“Liam is passionate about sport,” said Gohl. “And we want to get that message into the kids of: ‘if you’re passionate about something, we can help and support you.’”
