You can easily imagine these kids lying on the floor watching television. Then, all of a sudden, they’re leaning on one hand and kicking up towards an imaginary target or springing to their knees and leaping forward toward an imaginary mark.

Do you do this?  “No,” says, Mason Fairclough, Inuit games athlete from the Yukon. “I don’t watch television.”

But he knows his sport. “These games,” says Fairclough, “were a way of testing strength, pain and endurance for survival in the north. They were a way of seeing who was the strongest and who was toughest. Like the knuckle hop — lot of pain, but endurance, too. Who can go the farthest.”

“These games were created for entertainment, sure,” he continues, “but also to prepare for the hunt … for life, in a really difficult environment.”

Fairclough was attracted to the Inuit games because they are individual sports, “It’s you against the rest. It’s a personal challenge. If I want to get better it’s entirely up to me.”

The difference between the Inuit games and the Dene games is that the Inuit games require a lot more endurance where the Dene games have lot of strength and throwing events.