Veronica McDonald

Veronica McDonald (born in 1995), participated in Arctic Sports competitions from a young age, and has been a coach in these traditional Indigenous sports. holding several records in Arctic Sports while winning 34 medals participating in 10 Arctic Winter Games. McDonald credits her grandfather, Tim McDonald as her first coach; he also coached her mother from a young age. "I watched my mom in the 2000 Arctic Winter Games ... and everybody cheered for her and that immediately got my attention," she said. "I was like, 'I want to be like my mom." McDonald worked for the Northwest Territories government from 2016-2020 as a student case officer providing financial assistance.

Career

Athletics McDonald participated in Arctic Sports at the Arctic Winter Games seven times (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018), winning 28 medals beginning when she was 9 years old. She also holds two records at the Arctic Winter Games, in junior women’s (17 and under) kneel jump (132.4 cm/4' 4 1/8") (2012) and women’s open triple jump event (8.61 m/28' 3") (2018). She won awards as both the all-around Junior Female Athlete in Arctic Sports (2012) and the all-Around Open female athlete in Arctic Sports (2014, 2018). In 2014, she received the Junior Female Athlete Award from the Sport North Federation. She was selected to be the final torchbearer for the opening ceremony at the 2018 Games. While there, she competed in 12 events, and garnered 5 medals - four gold and one bronze. She received gold in the two-foot high kick, Alaskan high kick (a personal best of 6'), kneel jump (54' 0.25") and scissor broad jump (26' 8.5"), an event she had not competed in beforehand. Her bronze medal came in another event she competed in for the first time, blanket toss. although she'd already coached other athletes for many years in keeping with the philosophy of Arctic sports, as she explains: “In these games you are taught to offer encouragement and to help others.”

Awards She received the Sport North Federation's Junior Female Athlete in 2018, and the National Indigenous Coaching Award in 2020.