Megan Cromarty was named recently as the general manager of the 2026 Arctic Winter Games (AWG) to be held in Whitehorse in March.

The Star reached her on Wednesday to speak with her about her new opportunity.

Cromarty is a born-and-raised Yukoner who grew up playing basketball in Haines Junction.

She represented Team Yukon at the 1998 and 2000 Arctic Winter Games (AWG).

“I grew up participating in the sports system in the Yukon and got the opportunity to represent team Yukon at a couple Arctic Winter Games, Canada Summer Games, Western Canada Summer Games and then I went away to school and I came back and I got the program coordinator position at Sport Yukon and spent over six years in what I had deemed my dream job, especially at that point in my career.”

Cromarty was involved in running the Klondike Road Relay, supporting the Yukon’s sport governing bodies, hosting events, doing sport tourism and heavily involved in administration of Team Yukon for multiple teams and games.

“That position helped grow my career exponentially but then I reached a point where I needed a little bit more of a challenge and I became the executive director at Skills Canada for a few years, moved to YG and then came back over here to the Sport Recreation branch and I’ve been here for just over five years as a First Nation recreation and sport consultant.”

Cromarty said she has also volunteered in many capacities, including coaching and serving on boards, most specifically in basketball.

She has served as mission staff, assistant chef de mission and most recently the chef de mission at the 2023 AWG.

Between her role at Sport Yukon and the territorial sport and recreation branch, she has been involved in six AWG and six other major multi-sport games.

Cromarty explained how the opportunity came about.

“I was aware that we were going to be hosting these games and when I saw the job posting come out, I thought ‘what a great opportunity it would be for me to kind of see the games from every angle.’

“I have been involved in the past two host societies as AVP (Assistant Vice President) of athlete services. So that was kind of a hybrid of volunteer and work positions. But I haven’t ever been staff on the host society and coordinating the games from the ground up, which this position will be doing. And I thought it would be just such a great opportunity to leverage my experience and connections within the sport and rec community in Whitehorse, but also kind of help share the magic and the excitement that comes with Arctic Winter Games because I’m very passionate about these games in that sport development aspect and growth for youth.”

Cromarty said she is “very excited” about the opportunity.

“Even prior to finding out I got the job, when I was applying, my mind has just been constantly thinking of opportunities of partnership and engagement and just connections and all that sort of stuff. So I have had this running list on my phone for a couple of months now and I am just excited that I get the opportunity to work on some of my ideas and work with the board of governors to build this organization.”

Cromarty was asked if she’s looking at her new position as a big challenge as well as a big opportunity.

“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” she replied. “I think challenge, not in the negative sense of the word. I think a challenge as in how can we make this the best games, right, like how can we engage with the business community? How can we engage with local First Nation governments, those being more opportunities than challenges.

“Listening and hearing some of the challenges the Rendezvous societies faced with volunteer capacity, I think, how we engage with the community and build excitement and recognition of volunteers, to draw in new people, people that have been involved in the past, people that are currently enrolled and how can we draw them in and keep them engaged, because this is quite a long planning process. And so some key volunteer positions, we need people engaged for quite a long period of time. So I think that would probably be one of the challenges, is building that volunteer recruitment, retention and recognition program.”

Cromarty said they’ll need some long-term volunteers, but many of them will be required when the Games are on.

“I think it’s a variety of both but definitely planning volunteers will be kind of a key priority,” related Cromarty. “And not necessarily a challenge but a priority for me. Once we get back from the 2024 games, I’m building that program.”

Cromarty said it’s hard to pinpoint the number of volunteers, but in past games, they’ve put at least two thousand volunteers to work in all kinds of positions.

“Once we nail down how we’re going to break down the games I think it will give us a better idea of how many volunteers we’ll actually need for these games.”

Cromarty agreed that past planning for Games, such as the cancelled 2020 Arctics and the 2007 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse, could serve as a template of sorts for the 2026 Arctics.

“There’s lots of good plans in place from both 2020, 2007, and even when we actually successfully hosted our Arctic Winter Games in 2012. So I think we have a lot of capacity in the Yukon to host these major games and there’s a lot of legacy and knowledge pieces that already exist that I think will be huge tools for me.”

Whether some events will take place in the communities is to be determined.

“We can’t really say right now,” related Cromarty. “One of my goals is to build community engagement and excitement and some of it may involve engagement with the communities outside of Whitehorse.”

Cromarty pointed out that the City of Whitehorse is the host community.

“They are the ones that signed the contract with the International Committee, but I definitely think there’s lots of opportunities to work with other communities on different aspects of the games.”

Cromarty is planning on hitting the ground running.

“I haven’t officially started yet so I still am currently in my existing role at the Sport Recreation branch and wearing the assistant chef de mission hat for Team Yukon. So I will be leaving early next week to go down with the team and get things set up for their arrival. And then on March 11, I will change hats from the team to the host society.”

The upcoming Arctics in Mat-Su/Palmer Alaska represent a valuable opportunity for the 2026 organizers, including Cromarty, to get another first-hand look at how the Games are run. Cromarty said there will be a group of people from the host society, including City of Whitehorse representatives and other volunteer people that are currently engaged that will be going to the games to learn from the games society there.

“We’ll be setting up meetings to talk to different functional areas of the games to get that knowledge piece and if they have some key learnings and ideas that worked well or perhaps didn’t work well that they want us to be aware of. So we’ll be doing that throughout the course of the games.”

Cromarty explained the next steps.

“I have met with the Board of Governors, and I think we both are aligned and this is engaging with some key stakeholders. So reconciliation being one of those pillars that I think the whole society wants to build the vision on. There has been some engagement with the two local First Nation governments here in Whitehorse. And then we are also lucky enough to have Peter Johnston, grand chief of CYFN, on our board of governors. So that will be a key piece, is to continue that engagement and then also create engagement with some other key stakeholders.

“Building a sponsorship team will also be key to start building that revenue generation and then building the staff from there. So those are a couple of my key priorities.”

Cromarty added, “I recognize that Arctic winter games are very familiar with people that have grown up in the Yukon. And I’m thinking that for these games, we really want to engage all the new Yukoners and teach them about what these games are and what it means to the youth, to the community, the highlighting of the different cultures that are coming from the circumpolar north. So I’m excited to build that kind of vision.”

She also agreed that it’s an advantage for her to have grown up in the Yukon, as well as being a participant in the Games and being involved in the sport and recreation sector.

“I think that allows me to work with organizations that they’ve already built and established relationships with. So I think that will be a benefit.”

The cost of hosting the Arctics in 2026 has been estimated at about $9.55 million.