Tori and Tom Vollmer are enjoying their golden moments together at the 2023 Arctic Winter Games (AWG). The siblings each won gold in their respective Giant Slaloms Monday. They added to their collection with gold (Tori) and silver (Tom) medal wins in the Slalom Tuesday.

The Star spoke with the terrific twosome in between their slalom runs Tuesday about winning their first gold ulus, the medals of the AWG.

“It was pretty good to win the gold,” said Tom. “It was fun, hard. Trained all year for this moment, or moments.”

Tori added, “It was a really nice way to start off the Games. It was great to be able to share the moment with my little brother.”

When asked how their two runs went, Tori replied “The course was faster but I was a little less cautious and just pushed it a little more.

“Tommy was also faster the second run.”

Tom said It was good. My first run was pretty close. I think I was only in the lead by like 10 milliseconds, which isn’t a lot. So I tried to push it harder on my second run which helped out a lot, so I think I was ahead by a second, so that was better. And it helped me out.”

“He did great,” added Tori.

There was a key to the two winning their races Monday.

“Scraping all the wax off of our skis was a key factor,” said Tom. “And sharpening was good. We spent probably an hour sharpening our skis last night and the night before and (will) again tonight.”

Tori said “Everyone tunes their own skis.”

Tom added “I’m a bit spoiled. My dad usually helps me.”

Tori added: “We all help each other out.”

When asked if the conditions were due to manmade snow, Tori said “No, the snow conditions are pretty incredible right now.”

Tom explained “It’s just because it’s so cold.”

Tori explained “It’s hard to find a wax that performs at this temperature.”

Tom said “Because the colder the wax, the easier it falls off.

“So you would have really fast speeds for your training run in the morning but then it wouldn’t be very fast for the rest. Plastic would just be as fast anyways.”

Tori added “Staying warm was a key component and just trusting all the training that we’ve been doing over the past while.”

As far as how it was going in the slalom Tuesday, Tom said “Right now we’re both doing pretty good. Tori’s in first and I’m also in first, so hopefully keep it like that.”

Tori added “Tommy had some really good runs. He was faster than his age category by quite a bit.”

The two ski siblings were asked how their experience at the Games has been so far.

Tori said “This isn’t my first multi-sport games but it’s been going really great. It’s nice to have your own room which is not something I’ve experienced in the past games and it’s really special to have Tom here too.

This is the first games that we’ve gone through together.

“I’ve been living away from the family right now. So it’s been really nice to spend time with him. And the rest of the team.

“I’ve been living in Canmore. I’ve been ski racing with the team there. I’ve been able to train more, so I’ve been living there.

Tom is also enjoying the Games.

“They’re going good. There’s a lot of people; it’s really cool to meet new people. But this is my first year. I was supposed to go to 2020 (AWG)but then it got cancelled. It’s pretty neat.”

Tom just turned 13. Tori just turned 17.

“I had my birthday while we were here,” she said. “We had the whole (AWG) village sing Happy Birthday. It was a great birthday.”

Both Vollmers added “Go Team Yukon!”