Media Release
Ivalu Leishman-Brocklebank, a returning student to Bruce Peninsula District School (BPDS) in Lion’s Head, ON, is being recognized as the Female Athlete of the Year for the Territory of Nunavut. Ivalu, and her family, who have spent every summer in Tobermory for the last 24 years, have moved to the Bruce Peninsula for the academic school year. Ivalu will be returning to Nunavut in order to attend the athletic ceremony in the territory’s capital on October 4th. Ivalu, having been raised in Nunavut, has spent a majority of her life surrounded by Inuit culture and traditions, so it was no surprise to her parents that she took an interest in Arctic Sports, formerly called Inuit Games.
In 2023, Ivalu tried Arctic Sports for the first time after her father encouraged her to try out for the Arctic Winter Games team representing Nunavut. Ivalu finished first for the junior category that year, and went on to compete at the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska the following March of 2024. At the AWG’s, Ivalu earned Nunavut a gold medal in arm-pull, going undefeated in all of her matches.
After that event, Iva began to focus her energies on practicing the events of Arctic Sports which included arm pull, head pull, one-foot high kick, two-foot high kick, Alaskan high kick, and many more. Ivalu, along with a friend, began running training sessions to teach youth how to play the games and continue the strong tradition of excellence in the games for her community of Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut. Just this past February, Ivalu traveled to Greenland to compete in the first Avanna Arctic Games, against athletes from Greenland, Alaska, Nunavut, and Nunavik. At the games Ivalu performed extremely well, earning gold in head pull, and bronze in six events: one-foot high kick, two-foot high kick, Alaskan high kick, 2-man carry, airplane, and aqsakuk (a stick-pull game). After having coached Ivalu in hockey and seeing her natural athletic abilities, and then watching Ivalu beat athletes that were much larger than she was, her coach Russell Mullins, nominated her for the Female Athlete of the Year award.
Ivalu now has her sights set on making Team Nunavut for the second time in order to represent the territory in March at the 2026 Arctic Winter Games being held in Whitehorse, Yukon.
