Sport Yukon handed out its major awards Thursday at the Sport Yukon facilities in Whitehorse.

Dahria Beatty was named International Female Athlete of the Year.

She wasn’t in attendance, but her father and mother were and her father gave a short speech on her behalf.

Beatty is one of Canada’s top cross-country skiers. In 2021, Beatty had three top 20 finishes. She placed 15th in the 15-kilometre free at the Engadin World Cup in Switzerland. It was Beatty’s career-best in a distance race.

Freestyle skier Étienne Geoffroy-Gagnon was named International Male Athlete of the Year and joined the ceremony via Zoom from Whistler, B.C. where he was training.

At the season’s end, Geoffroy-Gagnon was internationally ranked 19th in slopestyle and 49th in big air.

Shiroumakai Judo club head coach Aaron Jensen was named Coach of the Year and attended the awards ceremony.

“It’s a surprise to me,” said Jensen.

“Because of COVID, most sports got shut down, and I was kind of tenacious enough to keep something going at some point.

“I have to admit, I shut down too, thinking that ‘oh, it’ll only be a couple months.’ And after about four or five months, it was like ‘this is going crazy’, so that’s when I managed to find a commercial space and do what classes we could, while we could,” Jensen recalled.

“I find myself more of a facilitator. I have the contacts, I have the know-how to get them to these events and then it’s up to the athletes, really to show up and follow the system,” he said.

“As far as doing something different – not really. I don’t think ... there’s a lot more coaches out there that may have put in just as much effort as I did that just didn’t get recognized,” Jensen added.

Jan Mann was named Administrator of the Year. She has been a long-time volunteer in many organizations in the Yukon but recently devoted her time to being the treasurer of ElderActive for two years. Mann also attended the ceremony and gave a short speech.

“I’m very humbled by the recognition, by the board that I work with, by the staff,” said Mann.

“Everyone is very committed to the goals of the organization and it’s a small part that I play but it’s very nice to be recognized. It means a lot.”

Sport Yukon will be hosting their Hall of Fame ceremony in June.