It was just a matter of time before Brendan Green was inducted into the NWT Sport Hall of Fame.
After all, Hay River's own is only one of the greatest athletes to have ever been produced in the territory and his resume rivals that of any biathlete who's ever raced for Canada.
Green was officially welcomed into the hallowed halls of territorial sport immortality on Friday night at the Chateau Nova Hotel in Yellowknife with his wife, Rosanna Crawford, a three-time Olympian herself, joining him for the honour. His parents, Bruce and Mariyln Green, were also on hand.
He joins such names as Sharon and Shirley Firth, Vic Mercredi, Michael Gilday and Meika McDonald in the athletes category.
Green told SA国际影视传媒 on Monday that it's a huge honour, especially knowing it came from the North.
"The North has always been my home and the support I've received over the years has been just awesome," he said.
Green retired from competitive biathlon in 2019 and now makes his home in Canmore, Alta., but before he did, he went out and made his name in both the national and international circuits. He's best known for having raced in three Winter Olympics in 2010, 2014 and 2018. Green was also a member of the Canadian national team for several season, making nearly 200 World Cup appearances wearing the maple leaf.
He did win himself a bronze medal at the 2016 World Biathlon Championships in Oslo, Norway, and there's another honour you may or may not know about.
It came at the Canada Winter Games in 2007 in Whitehorse where he won gold for the NWT, but not in the sport you think he did. Green ended up winning the men's mass start race that year by more than a second.
"It's funny to remember that, but it's really cool," he said.
Of course, Green would never have gotten to where he ended up in biathlon without first strapping up the bindings at the Hay River Nordic Centre, which is where he would team up with the late Pat Bobinski to get his career off of the ground.
"Pat was a close family friend and I started under his tutelage," said Green. "I wasn't old enough to pick up a rifle, but eventually I could and Pat and I just had a real great relationship. He was with me every step of the way."
That also went for the volunteers at both the club and around town as well, he added.
"If I needed a trail groomed, they did it for me," he said. "If I needed to stay late to practice, Pat would always make sure I got home. There were carpenters who would work on my rifles. Everyone just got so involved and went above and beyond to help me succeed. I can never thank them enough."
Green is part of the working world now - he's an ultrasound technician in Calgary - and while he's done with the sport full-time, he does get involved from time to time.
"I don't give it too much thought," he said. "It's just nice with the hall of fame induction to reflect and think back about all the great memories and there's a lot of them."
