(Image Credit: CFJC News)

By Sydney Chisholm

Kamloops Highland Games

Highland Games reconnect competitors with their roots

Jul 15, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS – It is a tradition over 1,000 years old originating in Scotland – to find the strongest warriors in the land.

Highland Games are now held all over the world as a celebration of Scotland.

On Saturday (July 13), the annual Kamloops Highland Games took place at Albert McGowan Park after a five-year hiatus.

“A lot of us just consider the Highland Games to be strongman events, but with etiquette,” said Rob Carlson, a men’s heavy event competitor who travelled from Vancouver Island to participate.

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Throwing heavy objects to test one’s strength is a tradition spanning numerous cultures and dates back hundreds of years. However, no one does it quite like the kilted men and women of the Highland Games.

“I’m always very proud to be in a culture that embraces strength. I told you I was raised in traditional Scottish strength culture, so it’s wonderful to be able to come out and throw in a field of competitors where strength is valued,” said Natasha Little, women’s heavy event athlete. “It is strength, it is speed, it is agility, but very much so, we are out here throwing heavy implements as far and as high as we can.”

Little grew up around the games. Both her parents are heavy event athletes and she says it was a big part of her childhood.

“I started my first games [when] I was just one year old and it’s always been a part of the house that I was raised in,” said Little. “It’s a cultural component. It’s very much competition. It’s very much a sport, but it’s also a culture.”

A Highland Games staple is the caber toss, where competitors run with and then throw a 20-foot-long wooden pole weighing more than 65 lbs.

Despite the caber being the heaviest object thrown during the games, the caber toss is a skill event.

“We are picking the caber and trying to expend as little energy as we can on the pick — the pick is deceptively hard,” said Little. “What we’re trying to do is have the caber land end over end — so it lands and it goes straight up to 90 degrees.”

Once the caber goes through 90 degrees, a perfect toss would have it land straight, in line with the athlete’s starting run.

Winning is always a plus, but for most of the competitors, the Highland Games represent so much more.

“Being the Viking and the Scottish, this is good,” said Carlson. “It’s like reconnecting with the roots.”