Young paddler wins Yukon's 1st medal at North American Indigenous Games

Prezley Jobin, who picked up Team Yukon's first medal this week at the North American Indigenous Games in Halifax, said it was her dad who first got her interested in paddling.

"Just watching him do it and him doing races, I just eventually got into it," she said.

"I think he's really happy that we have something like this in common."

Jobin, who lives in Whitehorse and is from the Liard First Nation, won bronze in the 3000-metre 16U solo canoe race on Monday. She finished a few minutes behind gold medallist Autumn Jen Malloway of B.C., and silver medallist Leiara Frogg of Manitoba.

The 15-year-old hasn't been paddling long. It's her first year doing it competitively. 

As part of her training, she was out on Whitehorse's Schwatka Lake several times a week as soon as the ice was gone. She also participated in this month's Yukon River Quest, a long-distance paddling race down the Yukon River.

"That was sort of like training — very intense training."

She's still got a few races ahead of her this week, and she's also looking forward to taking in more of the culture in Nova Scotia.

"It was really cool being at the opening ceremony," she said. "I've never seen that many Indigenous people in a group before. It was really cool." 

Coach Heidi Bob said the small contingent of Yukon paddlers has also had some help from other teams — in particular, Team Alberta and Team Manitoba.

"They definitely helped us out with how to like, maneuver the canoe for solo races and like, helped us get equipment and get set up," Bob said.

"They were cheering us on the dock as well because they knew that there's just three of us, and so they were like, 'we've gotta cheer for Prezley too.' So that was pretty cool."