Ivinnguaq-Ane A. Olsen from Ilulissat is still a teenager, but at the Greenland Kayak Championships she competes in the class for women aged 20-34 – and wins one medal after another.
– It’s a cool feeling to compete with kayakers who are much older than me, says 19-year-old Ivinnguaq-Ane A. Olsen to Sermitsiaq.
Ivinnguaq-Ane A. Olsen from Ilulissat is still a teenager, but at the Greenland Kayak Championships she competes in the class for women aged 20-34 – and wins one medal after another.
– It’s a cool feeling to compete with kayakers who are much older than me, says 19-year-old Ivinnguaq-Ane A. Olsen to Sermitsiaq.
Behind the many GM medals lies targeted work all around the Greenlandic kayak.
In winter, training and kayak maintenance apply.
– The ice in Disko Bay sets its limits, but then we train in the clubhouse, including rope exercises to strengthen balance.
In the summer, this applies to the competitions, especially on trips to the Greenland Championships.
– It’s about winning, but it’s also about meeting new friends about a common interest.
Ivinnguaq-Ane brought two kayaks to GM in Nuuk at the beginning of July. The one for kayak turns she has built herself; she bought the other for racing from a kayak builder in Ilulissat.
In Nuuk with high sun all day, she was overall champion of Greenland 2026, among other things with gold in individual kayak flipping and the relay competition.
Kayak family for three generations
Ivinnguaq-Ane is the next generation in a strong kayaking family: The parents Hans Kristian and Angerlaq A. Olsen and the grandfather Peter Olsen are well-known names in kayaking, and inspired by the family she started kayaking at the age of 6.
Ivinnguaq-Ane is not only a competitive person; she is also aware of the kayak’s crucial importance to Inuit culture.
– It may be bad to train in bad weather, but the idea of maintaining an ancient kayaking culture gives warmth, says Ivinnguaq-Ane A. Olsen.
It is not only in Greenland that her abilities in kayaking have been noticed. Last year, together with Ujarneq Tobiassen, she demonstrated kayak turns in Lake Tivoli on two festive days with “Grønland i Tivoli”.
And Ivinnguaq-Ane A. Olsen stays on the water: She starts in August at Skipperskolen in Paamiut.
The story of the kayak
The importance of kayaking to Inuit culture cannot be overstated.
On 12 August, Greenland’s postal service opens a stamp series about the history and use of the kayak, which is told in Christian Fleischer Rex’s imagery.
Christian Fleischer Rex, educated at The Animation Workshop in Viborg, created the critically acclaimed cartoon about Kaassassuk, where three of the drawings ended up on a postage stamp in 2011. We also know his vivid interpretations of Greenlandic myths and legends from Air Greenland’s cabins.
