WEIO Day 4: One last day to shine at Alaska ‘family reunion’

The third day of WEIO ended with an anxious moment for one of its best-known athletes. Nick Hanson crumpled in pain on the hardwood after midnight during the drop the bomb event. Though his distance was good enough to put him on the podium, he held his shoulder and winced.

World Eskimo-Indian Olympics games aren't the only way Hanson, of Unalakleet, gets to test himself. He's known by a wider audience as the "Eskimo Ninja" on NBC's "American Ninja Warrior" television show. But WEIO holds a special place in his heart, he said.

On Saturday morning, Hanson had rebounded well enough to earn gold in the bench reach. He won by an inch. Alaska Dispatch News caught up with him afterward.

Last night, you came up slowly from drop the bomb. What happened?

I have an injury that occurred back in early June. There's a video on my Instagram. You're going to have to go check it out. Basically, I came off one of the ninja obstacles. I did a back flip and landed on my neck. And so I tore my shoulder, and it popped out of place last night. Not the bone, the muscle. The muscle just tweaked out of place, so I dropped myself off because I didn't want to (further) injure it. Then the shaman (WEIO athlete and official) David Thomas came to my rescue. He put some weight on it and put it back in place. So, now today I'm definitely pretty sore, but I feel a lot better.

How many years have you been participating in WEIO?

Five years. Since 2012.

What keeps you coming back?

Family. This community, this WEIO family that we have, whether we're related or not, is just so powerful. It's something that I don't ever want to miss, because sometimes I only get that here. Sometimes I only get to see these guys in this setting. It's just a weeklong family reunion.

You get a chance to represent Unalakleet and rural Alaska on a national stage. Do you get a little appreciation for that when you come back home and do an event like this?

Yeah, definitely. The things I hear the most are, "We love what you do." I guess I'm doing something out there that's right. I do all of the stuff that I do for the kids. And when I'm competing out here, I just want to motivate some young kid to try and do as well as I can, or do as well as Tim Field or Stuart (Towarak) can. Maybe I can help those guys do a little bit better, so that they can inspire a young kid.

And then with the Ninja Warrior, it's just an honor. What an honor to have been chosen to get on the show, what an honor to continue to be competing on it, and an even bigger honor to be representing our state and my culture.

[Results from Friday and Saturday's events]

Does ninja training translate to WEIO sports, and vice versa?

They are a really good marriage. If you just do ninja training, it's not enough for WEIO. If you just do WEIO, it's not enough for ninja. But if you do them both, you're like the elite. That's where it's at. Lately, I've been doing a lot more ninja and I haven't been doing a lot of WEIO, so my WEIO abilities feel a lot less. But then I went out and did toe kick and went for the record …

They coincide really well, but if you can combine the two and get both of them together? Dude, it's the best marriage you can have.

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If the challenges of arm pull — a contest of raw head-to-head strength — weren't enough for WEIO athletes, many had one more thing on their minds Saturday. Young kids competed for their attention between rounds.

Throughout the four-day competition, the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics is about as family-friendly as a statewide sports championship event can be. Young ones dart around the Carlson Center in a busy environment that welcomes them. On Saturday, athletes said wrangling toddlers is worth the minor distraction.

Chelsea Morrow, of Wasilla, handed off her 7-month-old daughter, Amelia Steele, to a fellow competitor to hold each time she need to lock arms. Having kids, she said, helped prepare her. It's a unique sort of workout leading up to the games.

"If it wasn't for them, my arms and my upper body would definitely not be in shape the way that they are," Morrow said, who has two kids. "Baby lifts, throwing them up and down …"

During the same event, James Wardlow held his 3-year-old son, Isaac, in his arms, and tried to give his ex-wife Michelle Wardlow a chance to concentrate. Her daughter, Maria, hugged her leg.

The parents from Seward, who have five kids together, compete in several events each. They try to take turns watching the kids while the other performs.

"It's been three years that we've been bringing our children," James said. "Each year is getting little bit easier. It helps that it's family-oriented, so they don't really care too much that they're running around."

Casey Ferguson sat out the arm pull, but held his two kids in his lap at courtside and watched. But Ferguson, of Eagle River, focused hard in the final rounds of the two-foot high kick the previous evening. He looked to the audience for inspiration, leading them in a steady rhythm of clapping.

He credits his family for getting him as far as he has come in WEIO sports. Kelsey Wallace, his girlfriend, tried to give him the space to train leading up to WEIO.

"She's really supportive with everything. I try to reciprocate that," Ferguson said.

But as exciting as Friday's two-foot finals WEIO finals were, he said nothing compares to having his daughters Maddie, 4, and Kiah, 1, in the audience. He walked to the sideline to give Maddie a kiss right before his final attempt.

"Having family here means more than anything," Ferguson said.

Morrow said having young kids watch is an investment in culture that she hopes will instill something lasting as they age.

"They're more motivation for me to train, so that when they're older, I can show them how to do these games," she said. "And in order to do that, I have to be fit enough to do them."

Multiple-event athlete Noel Strick, of Wasilla, agrees. During the preliminary rounds of one-foot high kick, she said her daughter was making a video as she kicked.

"She was right there. I had to make at least a really good effort for her because she's watching. And then someday, maybe, she'll do the same," Strick said.

But the minimum age for participation in WEIO is 12. That means young ones sometimes get bored and antsy.

Before the start of the finals in arm pull, Strick found her kids inspired her in a slightly different way. She had to monitor the behavior of her 7-year-old twins as she tried to concentrate.

"It is a huge distraction," Strick said.

"I was like, 'You can use this to your advantage, Noel. Just think about those kids driving you crazy.' "

Strick won gold.

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After locking up first place, Tim Field took a shot at the one-foot high kick record Saturday night at the Carlson Center.

Though he didn't connect at 118 inches, the record is his to keep — he set the mark of 117 inches (9 feet, 9 inches) in 2013.

"I'm really disappointed. My goal coming in here was 10 feet," Field said.

Field, who was raised in Noorvik and now lives in Las Vegas, didn't know how close he was to a new record until his final set of three attempts. Some athletes prefer not to be told what the height of the sealskin ball is set at. Knowing that, announcers rarely say it out loud.

But when he found out his winning kick was 116 inches, there was only one thing left to do – raise the ball two more inches and try to beat his own record.

Immediately afterward, Field said his form was what made the difference.

"I didn't point my toe," he said. "I just saw a picture just now,"  he said. "If I would've pointed it, I would've got it."

The Canadian-style one-foot high kick, in which the kicker leaves the ground while pushing off on two feet, is only contested every two years at WEIO. Field's next chance to break the record will be in 2019.

"I'll be back," he said.

In the women's competition, Deseray Cumberbatch reached the highest and traveled the farthest to get to the gold medal.

Cumberbatch is from Inukjuak, Nunavik, on the eastern reaches of Hudson Bay, Canada. The one-foot high kick, she said, was the primary reason why she came to WEIO.

"I flew from Inukjuak to Montreal, Calgary, Seattle, then Anchorage," she said.

Cumberbatch has competed at the Arctic Winter and was encouraged to come to WEIO by a friend in Alaska. On Saturday, she touched the ball at 88 inches for the win.

"I'm beyond happy," she said.

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Kyle Worl, of Juneau, handily won knuckle hop, the last event contested at World Eskimo-Indian Olympics. Just don't shake his hand right away. They're stinging and peeling.

It's an event so difficult, head official Sam Strange said they purposefully save it for last, leaving many athletes with no gas left in the tank. Not only do hands hurt afterward, but the stress on the upper body can require some recovery time.

Worl's knuckles and toes brought him 148-feet, 4.5-inches around the hardwood floor. But Worl didn't just have winning on his mind. His father, Rod Worl set the WEIO record in the event back in 1988, when he reached 191 feet, 10 inches.

"It's always on my mind. I'm always chasing it," Worl said of his father's record.

Worl, who competes in many events, has been training specifically for this one. That includes a lot of push-ups and toe-lifts. He practices with gloves on his hands to spare them the abuse.

He's seeing progress he said, but he still has a ways to go to beat his dad.

"Every year I'm getting closer and closer," he said.

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To wrap up our coverage of WEIO 2017, here's a look at the Tanana Dancers performing on a crowded floor at the start of the event's final evening.

Find all of our coverage from World Eskimo-Indian Olympics here.