Fort McPherson, N.W.T., coach Liz Wright, right, gives last-minute advice to snowshoe racers this week. (Patti-Kay Hamilton/CBC)Young athletes from tiny Fort McPherson, N.W.T., are making big waves this week at the Arctic Winter Games in Grande Prairie, Alta., winning more than two dozen medals to date.

Fort McPherson, a Gwich'in community of 800 located above the Arctic Circle, has sent 25 athletes to compete in five sporting events during the weeklong international games, which wrap up Saturday.

The local athletes are with Team Northwest Territories, going up against teams from the Yukon, Nunavut, northern Quebec, northern Alberta, Alaska, Russia, Scandinavia and Greenland.

Despite tough competition, especially from athletes living in larger communities, Fort McPherson competitors have won a total of 25 medals so far in events ranging from dog mushing and snowshoeing to biathlon and Dene games.

"Even just getting to the Games, I think, that's a gold medal for them itself," Fort McPherson coach Liz Wright told CBC News on Thursday.

Wright said the athletes are getting to know people from other regions of the North as well as being exposed to other sports in the Arctic Winter Games.

"Now they know that there's more than, you know, dog mushing and snowshoeing, so maybe next games we might have more kids," she said. "We're very proud of them."

Some of the medallists from Fort McPherson include:

• Shayla Showshoe, 17, who won a gold medal in the Dene finger pull and a bronze medal in the snow snake, both indigenous competitions at the Arctic Winter Games.
• Jo-Ellen Nerysoo, 16, won silver in dog mushing.
• Denis Nerysoo, 17, Jo-Ellen's brother, earned two bronze medals in snowshoe biathlon.

Dog musher Jo-Ellen Nerysoo, left, receives encouragement from her brother Denis, a medallist in snowshoe biathlon. (Patti-Kay Hamilton/CBC)

Denis Nerysoo credited his family and coaches back home for encouraging him in his sport.

"They helped us train a lot all season, helped us get here," he said. "Probably couldn't have done it if that never happened."

Wright said the community of Fort McPherson overall has helped athletes. For example, some donated moccasins as spare footwear just before Wright and the athletes left for Grande Prairie.

"We have lots of volunteers who come out to our events and help us and they encourage the kids," Wright said.

"You know, they want to achieve and they want to make Fort McPherson proud and the N.W.T. proud."

Wright said she hopes the 25 Fort McPherson athletes will inspire other local youths to work hard for the next Arctic Winter Games, to be held in Whitehorse in 2012.