The banks of the South Saskatchewan River came to life this summer with a rich display of art, culture, and high-performance sports thanks to the YXE Urban Games. 

Taking place in Victoria Park as well as a small collection of satellite sites around the city between August 16th and 18th, the YXE Urban Games featured more than 70 different events over three days, headlined by the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series. The event served as a homecoming for Humboldt-born Paige Crozon and the Canadian Women’s 3×3 team, which had just come off an impressive fourth place finish at the Paris Olympics less than 2 weeks prior. 

The event drew almost 700 local, national, and internationally based athletes competing in the high level 3×3 series and Canadian wakeboarding national championships as well as a variety of other amateur sporting activities including dodgeball, futsal, wall climbing, and more. 

The games were the first of their kind in Saskatoon, the brainchild of Huskie Men’s Basketball Alumni and former Saskatchewan Rattlers player, Michael Linklater after he attended the World Urban Games in Budapest in 2019. Being in its first iteration, the path to the YXE Urban Games did not come without challenges. The Victoria Park location meant that the FIBA 3×3 series would have to be played on grass for only the second time in its history. 

“We pitched them [FIBA] the idea because we wanted it to be in Victoria Park with everything close to create that festival atmosphere,” said Kara Lackie, co-chair of the event and an alumni of Huskie Women’s Basketball. “We brought a team together and  had the right people around the table. Everyone was up for the challenge to make it happen.”

Another challenge Urban Games organizers faced was accommodating each local Urban Sport organization. 

“The Urban Games committee didn’t plan all of these events and activities. We partnered with the respective urban sport groups that were already well-established in our community and already doing super cool stuff. We invited them to the table and supported them to host their own competitions, showcases, and demonstrations,” said Lackie. “So I think the biggest challenge was working with so many people who had various needs to host or perform that we did our best to accommodate. But I think that’s the beautiful part about this event, that it brought together so many people that would have never have crossed paths otherwise.”

The YXE Urban Games were the culmination of the efforts of a small army behind co-chairs Lackie and Linklater, with collaboration occurring between local sport organizations, Discover Saskatoon, a 45 person organizing committee, and over 260 volunteers working a total of 3,650 volunteer hours. These interactions between diverse members of our community to organize a wide variety of events contributed to the vision of the YXE Urban Games being successfully achieved — creating an inclusive and accessible event to be enjoyed by all.

“We wanted to create a platform and an opportunity for individuals and groups in our community to have the light shone on them. We created a super accessible and inclusive space where there was something for everyone, whether you are an art or sport lover,” said Lackie. She also highlighted that one of the main drivers behind the concept was that urban sports are typically more accessible than mainstream sports. “They don’t require as much equipment or infrastructure. So that’s what kind of the underlying theme was —that we kept talking about how to make this as inclusive and accessible as possible so people can really rally around it and get excited about it.”

While no official announcements have been made yet, Lackie says that the plan is for the Games to become an annual event. The inaugural YXE Urban Games drew over 12,800 visitors and provided countless athletes and artists with the exposure they deserve for their hard work, and hopefully will continue to only get bigger and better as the years go on.