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On Monday afternoon, the Arctic Winter Games International Committee (AWGIC) unveiled their sports lineup for the 2014 Arctic Winter Games (AWG).

The 2014 Games will be hosted in Fairbanks, AK, marking the third time the city has held the international celebration of sports and culture.

Each of the 19 events that were featured at the 2012 Games in Whitehorse will return as the expected number of participants will once again be around 2,000 athletes.

While things will mostly remain the same in Fairbanks, the Games will see a significant decrease in 2016 when the event is hosted in Nuuk, Greenland and Iqaluit, Nunavut.

Each sport will be reduced to a maximum of two categories, significantly lessening the field and number of participants.

Gerry Thick, AWGIC president, said those cuts will mostly effect hockey and soccer.

In this past year's AWG, hockey was split into three divisions while soccer was split into five.

"It's never straightforward because there's always new sports and sports that want to get in,鈥� Thick said of the selection process.

"There are all sorts of variables that go into the selection.鈥�

The AWGIC first put in notice four years ago that the number of divisions would be reduced and the original plan was to begin that process in the 2014 Games.

"We had really been committed to start cutting in 2014 so we'd have less to cut in 2016 but then the argument was that Fairbanks is such a huge place and they wanted to host all the sports,鈥� said Thick.

"It was a hard decision to not start the cut this time but overall the big cut will be in 2016 and it will only be for one Games. That's better than drastically cutting this Games and the next.鈥�

The reason behind the cuts in 2016 coincides with competing in a smaller community, said Thick.

"It changes a little bit from host to host because every community is a little bit different,鈥� he said.

Greenland will be the host nation at the 2016 Games, holding the event in Nuuk, the capital city.

With a population of 16,000 people, Nuuk is the largest city in Greenland and also hosted the event in 2002.

The Games will shift to Nunavut for the ice hockey tournament, a decision that was based on the lack of venue availability in Nuuk.

There had been talk of establishing a permanemt or temporary ice rink for the Games but the city found it to be too expensive.

Instead they opted to collaborate with Nunavut which has the proper facilities to host the hockey tournament.

More than 300 Yukon athletes competed in the Games this past March in Whitehorse.

It was the 22nd running of the Arctic Winter Games and the sixth time Whitehorse has hosted the event.

The territorial athletes collected 122 ulus (medals) with 46 of them coming in gold and ended a 26-year medal drought on the volleyball court, with the junior males capturing gold and the junior females winning silver.

The Games are primarily a volunteer driven event.

With only ten full-time staff members, more than 2,000 volunteers came together in Whitehorse to make the event a reality.

In 2014 the Games will return to Fairbanks for the first time since 1988.

"It's been quite awhile and Fairbanks is pretty excited,鈥� said Thick.

"Things went great in Whitehorse and we're looking forward to heading to Fairbanks.鈥�