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With medals and mettle, Special Olympics Alaska athletes shine at 2023 World Games

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With medals and mettle, Special Olympics Alaska athletes shine at 2023 World Games


Special Olympics Alaska sent two of its qualifying members to participate in the 2023 World Games in Berlin, and even though the closing ceremonies won’t happen until Sunday, both athletes have already turned in impressive performances.

Eagle River’s Bobby Hill III won four medals in powerlifting, including gold in the bench press and silver in squat, deadlift, and combination.

Palmer’s Gretchen Winter placed fourth in the 1500 meter race with a mark of 6 minutes, 5.65 seconds. She is also the only female on the Team USA 4×100 relay team, whose race will be broadcast on ESPN3 and ESPN+ on Saturday.

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Anchorage’s Nance Larsen was one of the volunteers who also made the trek overseas and witnessed both Hill and Winter’s impressive feats of athleticism in person.

While she doesn’t know Winter personally, Larsen had an opportunity to chat with her after she ran the 1500 meters.

“What an incredible athlete, what a great story, she was really driven and was just so excited to be representing her country,” Larsen said.

Larsen has known Hill for many years and said he is an “absolute fan favorite in the powerlifting community.”

“He is just exuberant when he competes and it shows in every fiber of his being,” Larsen said. “It’s amazing to watch him compete and know that this is a person that’s actually from my community. It’s just phenomenal to see how far the program has come and the impact that it has on our local athletes.”

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She saw Hill win gold in the bench press and take silver in the squat. Anytime she has a chance to watch him compete, Larsen describes the experience as “a complete joy.”

“Something comes over him and he just ignites the crowd,” she said. “He’s absolutely into it. He gets the crowd excited and they’re excited to see him. He just lights up that stage like no one else.”

Larsen was far from the only one cheering loud and proud for Winter as she ran her race.

“Gretchen has an entire contingent here of relatives from Germany, from Alaska, from California,” she said. “They all have Gretchen Winter signs and they are just lining the competition site cheering her on.”

Larsen added that it was “just incredible” to see the overwhelming support that both athletes received at the 2023 Games.

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Winter will stay behind a little longer after the Games have concluded to spend more time with family and friends, but Hill will return home Monday. His Alaska Airlines flight is set to arrive at 11:37 p.m. in Anchorage, and his supporters will be waiting at the airport to welcome him back.

Getting involved and growing the Games

Larsen first became involved with the Special Olympics as the marketing communications director for the 2001 World Winter Games, which were held in Anchorage, and has been a regular communication volunteer ever since.

“The experience in Anchorage was literally life-changing, and it’s something that I’ve just been committed to ever since,” she said.

While she was originally born in Everett, Washington, she grew up and raised her family in Anchorage. This marked her ninth time volunteering at a World Games event.

“It was just an incredible opportunity to participate in a global event that was coming to Anchorage,” Larsen said. “(It was) something that had not previously been seen in the area.”

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Larsen said watching Hill and Winter represent the state on the international stage and test their mettle against some of the best Special Olympics athletes from around the world “was incredible” and reminiscent of her first experience working the World Games.

“It really did take me back to the Games that were in Alaska, the way our community came together and supported an incredible global event,” she said. “To see the work that was done there kind of laid the foundation for where we are today.”





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Alaska

Alaska governor, ally of Trump, will keep flags at full-staff for Inauguration Day • Alaska Beacon

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Alaska governor, ally of Trump, will keep flags at full-staff for Inauguration Day • Alaska Beacon


Alaska will join several other Republican-led states by keeping flags at full-staff on Inauguration Day despite the national period of mourning following President Jimmy Carter’s death last month.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced his decision, which breaks prior precedent, in a statement on Thursday. It applies only to flags on state property. Flags on federal property are expected to remain at half-staff.

Flags on state property will be returned to half-staff after Inauguration Day for the remainder of the mourning period.

The governors of Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana and Alabama, among others, have announced similar moves. 

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U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said on Tuesday that flags at the U.S. Capitol would remain at full-staff on Inauguration Day. 

Their actions follow a statement from President-elect Donald Trump, who said in a Jan. 3 social media post that Democrats would be “giddy” to have flags lowered during his inauguration, adding, “Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out.”

Dunleavy is seen as a friend of the incoming president and has met with him multiple times over the past year. Dunleavy and 21 other Republican governors visited Trump last week in Florida at an event that Trump described as “a love fest.”

Since 1954, flags have been lowered to half-staff during a federally prescribed 30-day mourning period following presidential deaths. In 1973, the second inauguration of President Richard Nixon took place during the mourning period that followed the death of President Harry Truman. 

Then-Gov. Bill Egan made no exceptions for Alaska, contemporary news accounts show, and no exception was made for Nixon’s inauguration in Washington, D.C., either. 

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A spokesperson for Dunleavy’s office said the new precedent is designed to be a balance between honoring the ongoing mourning period for former President Jimmy Carter and recognizing the importance of the peaceful transition of power during the presidential inauguration. 

“Temporarily raising the flags to full-staff for the inauguration underscores the significance of this democratic tradition, while returning them to half-staff afterward ensures continued respect for President Carter’s legacy,” the spokesperson said.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

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Federal disaster declaration approved for Northwest Alaska flooding

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Federal disaster declaration approved for Northwest Alaska flooding


ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – President Joe Biden announced the approval of federal disaster assistance on Thursday for recovery efforts in areas that sustained damage from flooding and storms in October 2024.

Those areas include the Bering Strait Regional Educational Attendance Area (REAA) and the Northwest Arctic Borough area where many structures were damaged by a severe storm from Oct. 20-23, 2024.

Jerry Jones and his two children were rescued Wednesday after being stranded overnight on the roof of their flooded cabin about 15 miles north of Kotzebue during a large storm impacting Western Alaska.(Courtesy of Jerry Jones)
Kotzebue Flooding
Kotzebue Flooding(Michelle Kubalack)

In a press release, FEMA announced that federal funding is available on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work to the state of Alaska, tribal and eligible local governments, and certain private nonprofit organizations.

The announcement comes just a few days after Biden released the major disaster declaration approval for the August Kwigillingok flooding.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

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Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska and Siberia

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Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska and Siberia


Map of areas that experienced ecosystem climate stress in the Arctic-boreal region between 1997-2020 as detected by multiple variables including satellite data and long-term temperature records. Watts et al., 2025, Geophysical Research Letters. Credit: Christina Shintani / Woodwell Climate Research Center

Ecological warning lights have blinked on across the Arctic over the last 40 years, according to new research, and many of the fastest-changing areas are clustered in Siberia, the Canadian Northwest Territories, and Alaska.

An analysis of the rapidly warming Arctic-boreal region, published in Geophysical Research Letters, provides a zoomed-in picture of ecosystems experiencing some of the fastest and most extreme climate changes on Earth.

Many of the most climate-stressed areas feature permafrost, or ground that stays frozen year-round, and has experienced both severe warming and drying in recent decades.

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To identify these “hotspots,” a team of researchers from Woodwell Climate Research Center, the University of Oslo, the University of Montana, the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), and the University of Lleida used more than 30 years of geospatial data and long-term temperature records to assess indicators of ecosystem vulnerability in three categories: temperature, moisture, and vegetation.

Building on assessments like the NOAA Arctic Report Card, the research team went beyond evaluating isolated metrics of change and looked at multiple variables at once to create a more complete, integrated picture of climate and ecosystem changes in the region.

“Climate warming has put a great deal of stress on ecosystems in the high latitudes, but the stress looks very different from place to place and we wanted to quantify those differences,” said Dr. Jennifer Watts, Arctic program director at Woodwell Climate and lead author of the study.

“Detecting hotspots at the local and regional level helps us not only to build a more precise picture of how Arctic warming is affecting ecosystems, but to identify places where we really need to focus future monitoring efforts and management resources.”

The team used spatial statistics to detect “neighborhoods,” or regions of particularly high levels of change during the past decade.

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“This study is exactly why we have developed these kinds of spatial statistic tools in our technology. We are so proud to be working closely with Woodwell Climate on identifying and publishing these kinds of vulnerability hotspots that require effective and immediate climate adaptation action and long-term policy,” said Dr. Dawn Wright, chief scientist at Esri. “This is essentially what we mean by the ‘Science of Where.’”

The findings paint a complex and concerning picture.

The most substantial land warming between 1997–2020 occurred in the far eastern Siberian tundra and throughout central Siberia. Approximately 99% of the Eurasian tundra region experienced significant warming, compared to 72% of Eurasian boreal forests.

While some hotspots in Siberia and the Northwest Territories of Canada grew drier, the researchers detected increased surface water and flooding in parts of North America, including Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and central Canada. These increases in water on the landscape over time are likely a sign of thawing permafrost.

  • Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska, Siberia
    Warming severity “hotspots” in Arctic-boreal region between 1997-2020 were detected by analyzing multiple variables including satellite imagery and long-term temperature records. Watts et al., 2025, Geophysical Research Letters. Credit: Christina Shintani / Woodwell Climate Research Center
  • Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska, Siberia
    Map of areas of severe to extremely severe drying in the Arctic-boreal region. Drying severity was determined by analyzing multiple variables from the satellite record. Watts et al., 2025, Geophysical Research Letters. Credit: Christina Shintani / Woodwell Climate Research Center
  • Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska, Siberia
    Map of areas that experienced vegetation climate stress in the Arctic-boreal region between 1997-2020 as detected by multiple variables from the satellite record. Watts et al., 2025, Geophysical Research Letters. Credit: Christina Shintani / Woodwell Climate Research Center

Among the 20 most vulnerable places the researchers identified, all contained permafrost.

“The Arctic and boreal regions are made up of diverse ecosystems, and this study reveals some of the complex ways they are responding to climate warming,” said Dr. Sue Natali, lead of the Permafrost Pathways project at Woodwell Climate and co-author of the study.

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“However, permafrost was a common denominator—the most climate-stressed regions all contained permafrost, which is vulnerable to thaw as temperatures rise. That’s a really concerning signal.”

For land managers and other decisionmakers, local and regional hotspot mapping like this can serve as a more useful monitoring tool than region-wide averages. Take, for instance, the example of COVID-19 tracking data: maps of county-by-county wastewater data tend to be more helpful tools to guide decision making than national averages, since rates of disease prevalence and transmission can vary widely among communities at a given moment in time.

So, too, with climate trends: local data and trend detection can support management and adaptation approaches that account for unique and shifting conditions on the ground.

The significant changes the team detected in the Siberian boreal forest region should serve as a wakeup call, said Watts.

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“These forested regions, which have been helping take up and store carbon dioxide, are now showing major climate stresses and increasing risk of fire. We need to work as a global community to protect these important and vulnerable boreal ecosystems, while also reining in fossil fuel emissions.”

More information:
Regional Hotspots of Change in Northern High Latitudes Informed by Observations From Space, Geophysical Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL108081

Provided by
Woodwell Climate Research Center

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Citation:
Arctic hotspots study reveals areas of climate stress in Northern Alaska and Siberia (2025, January 16)
retrieved 16 January 2025
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