Meet Akutaq Williamson Bathory, the polar skater whose passion goes beyond the ice

In the vast Canadian territory of Nunavut, a 20-year-old teaches young people exercises, showing them how to propel themselves on skates and accelerate explosively.

The teacher does Akutaq Williamson Bathorya short track skater who has invested heavily in coaching, but also in an upward trajectory in her own athletic career.

At the 2023 Arctic Winter Games in Alberta, she won gold in each of the three distances she competed in for Team Nunavut.

Soon after, she began studying sociology at the University of Calgary and had the opportunity to train full-time at the Olympic Oval.

In an interview with Olympic Channel during production of the latest Original Series: ‘Winter playing fields’, she reflected on her journey to becoming a coach and contributing to her birth community.

“I worked with the ‘Learn to Skate’ program, creating their programs and coaching them, because I really hoped more Inuit would join in,” she said.

While coaching has been an integral part of her life, the opportunity to train at Calgary’s Olympic Oval has also had a big impact on Williamson Bathory, and she hopes it will inspire the next generation.

‘Going to the oval and being the only Inuit there, [was] really a huge dream of mine, to give creating some kind of inspiration or trail for other Inuit people to follow so they can make this dream come true [and] that they really excel in these spaces,” she explained.

“I hope more Inuit will compete at such high levels because they are so strong and determined.”