Gary Bailie
Gary Bailie, a Kwanlin Dün First Nation citizen, is a producer of the annual Whitehorse Blue Feather Music Festival.1)
As a youth, Gary was recruited by Father Jean-Marie Mouchet to his Territorial Experimental Ski Training (TEST) program.2) He remembers not being very good when he started at age eight.3) At age twelve, Fred Kelly, a Canadian Junior ski champion in 1968 and a member of the 1972 Sapporo Olympic ski team, took Gary under his wing.4) In 1972, at age thirteen, Gary skied in the Arctic Winter Games held in Whitehorse and won three medals and held his own against six-foot Alaskan skiers.5) At age seventeen, Gary made it into the Canadian national ski team, Les Epoirs (The Hopefuls), turning down offers to ski in Vermont and Finland. His last competitive race was at the 1980 Arctic Winter Games where he won a gold medal.6)
When Gary's daughter was old enough to ski, he started teaching her and was soon teaching more than 20 kids. This developed into the Kwanlin Koyotes cross country ski program that he has run for many years. The program has personal growth of the individual as its only priority and Gary encourages skiers of all ages to join. The Kwanlin Koyotes uses a trail system in the McIntyre subdivision that Gary built over the years. Gary Bailie was inducted into the Yukon Sports Hall of Fame in June 2024.7)