Fairbanks will play host to the Arctic Winter Games for a third time in 2014.

The Arctic Winter Games match athletes from the far north and the Arctic in a weeklong event that is expected to draw more than 2,000 athletes, coaches and cultural delegations.

The Daily News-Miner reported the number of athletes is expected to match that of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, B.C.

The games were first held in Yellowknife, Canada, in 1970. Fairbanks hosted the games in 1982 and 1988, but lost the 2006 bid to Kenai.

Fairbanks organizing chair Jeff Jacobson says the effort to win the bid involved hundreds of volunteers working thousands of hours.