At 71, a longtime Northwest Arctic leader wins the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics sportsmanship award

With the confidence of a seasoned athlete, Reggie Joule soared above the seal blanket at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks. Sticking to his longtime blanket toss style, Joule went for a backflip, and the crowd roared in response.

Joule participated in the competition last week at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, where he’s won multiple gold medals since he started attending the games in the 1970s.

Joule, a former elected official who’s now 71, took a break in his athletic career and dealt with several health issues in recent years. Taking bronze in the blanket toss among men at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics and winning the overall “Bud” Hagberg Memorial Sportsmanship Athletic Award this year was a surprise for him.

“I felt honored winning that,” he said. “It was rewarding — being back on the skin, to feel the skin under your feet, is a really good feeling for me.”

What made the experience even more remarkable was that his son, Reginald Joule III, competed with him and won the gold medal.

“I’m a little bit older now, and I wanted my grandchildren to be able to see that, you know, even with just a little bit of age, it doesn’t mean you have to stop doing some of the things that you enjoy,” he said. “To have my son competing as well, it made it even more special,” he said.

Numerous accomplishments

A two-foot high kick record holder and blanket toss athlete extraordinaire, Joule is also known for his accomplishments in Alaska politics.

He served in the Alaska State Legislature for 16 years and three terms as the Northwest Arctic Borough mayor. While he was mayor, Joule was appointed as a member of the U.S. President’s State Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience and hosted a visit from President Barack Obama in Kotzebue.

As for sports, Joule participated in the first Arctic Winter Games back in 1970 and started attending the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics around the same time.

Joule said that being involved in traditional Arctic sports helped him better understand what it meant to be Alaska Native and see how the games are connected to traditional practices and language.

“None of what we do as Indigenous people is in isolation,” he said.

Most importantly, he said, participating in Indigenous sports helped him find a stronger sense of community and family.

“The World Eskimo-Indian Olympics brings together many of the Indigenous cultures that are in Alaska into one place,” he said. “And that’s something that is worth being part of.”

Joule received over 10 gold medals in the blanket toss and more than 30 medals in the two-foot high kick, greased pole walk, arm pull and other events, which earned him the title “Mr. Olympics,” according to the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame.

He also spent some time coaching other athletes.

Joule said that the practice of mentorship makes Indigenous games more about participation than competition.

“The people who are participating in the games often are helping each other to do better. They’re offering advice,” he said. “Even though you may not have won, if you helped the person who did, then you’re all winners.”

For Nicole Johnson, a renowned athlete in Inuit games, Joule was never an official coach. But whenever they were at competitions, Johnson knew he was a champion and wanted his advice, which he shared generously, so she considered him a coach nonetheless.

“He was very, very calm, giving advice and clear, and just really embodied the spirit of what a coach should be — caring and loving and supportive,” Johnson said.

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‘It’s just kind of in the bloodline’

Joule planned to come back to the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics last year but unforeseen circumstances stopped him. He developed skin cancer and needed to undergo radiation treatment and four surgeries, during one of which he had to have his nose removed.

Months later and after multiple treatments and procedures, the doctors found that Joule didn’t have cancer anymore.

So he decided to return to the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics with a key goal in mind: to get back on the blanket.

Last week, Joule attended the games with his wife, son, grandsons, granddaughters and other family members. Several of them signed up for the blanket toss competition, but only Reggie Joule and his son Reginald Joule III were selected through a drawing process.

Reginald Joule III also became an athlete at a young age. “It’s just kind of in the bloodline,” he said.

During the competition, Reginald Joule III wanted to show his youngest son, who hasn’t seen him jump before, that it’s OK to get outside of your comfort zone and trust other people to catch you.

He was also hoping that his father would win.

“Being his son and seeing the struggles that he had over the course of the last year,” Reginald Joule III said, “it’s those small goals, small victories that you hang on to. It was being able to see him do something that he has a love and passion for, that he’s been doing ever since he was a little kid — doing the blanket toss — to see him go up and accomplish the goal that he set for himself. ... It was very moving.”

The moment was special for the crowd as well, Reginald Joule III said. A lot of the elders had seen Reggie Joule at the games while growing up, he said, and now some of them had tears of joy watching him participate again.

“When he got on the blanket, he drew the crowd in,” Reginald Joule III said. “There was so much energy. ... It felt real special to be a part of it.”

Nicole Johnson, who is on the games’ Board of Governors, said that if anyone knows anything about blanket toss or the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, they know Reggie Joule.

“He’s just so effortless, it’s just second nature to him,” Johnson said. “It just fills my heart with joy every single time I get to watch Reggie jump on the blanket.”

As for Joule himself, he said he hopes to continue the family tradition.

“I’m sure that when I go again, it’s going to be to watch and cheer for not only the younger athletes,” he said, “but my grandchildren who may choose to do that and watch them grow.”