Team Nunavut dominating in badminton at the North American Indigenous Games

Nunavut's Nolan Kiguktak is on a winning-streak at the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG).

"Haven't lost a game yet. Feeling confident," said the 17-year-old badminton player from Grise Fiord, Nunavut.

But he's not the only Nunavut youth dominating the competition.

With just two days left of NAIG, seven out of Team Nunavut's eight players made the quarter-finals in singles, as well as six of the territory's eight doubles teams.

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"I was a little nervous at first, but now I feel like I was nervous for nothing," said Kiguktak, a first-timer at NAIG. He prepared by practicing "day after day after day" with the only other three players he knows in his community of about 130.

Team Nunavut plays badminton at NAIG

7 years ago

Duration 0:27

Team Nunavut is dominating in badminton at the North American Indigenous Games.

But the majority of the team's players — five out of eight — came from another tiny Inuit community in the southernmost part of the territory: Sanikiluaq.

"We're not really fighting for gym time," said the team's coach Stephen Keoughan, who moved to Sanikiluaq 12 years ago.

He says he saw badminton as a natural fit for smaller communities that don't have enough people for sports like volleyball or basketball.

"They have a very strong badminton club and a very dedicated club," said competitor Anna Lambe from Iqaluit, who's heading to the quarter-finals for doubles.

"They also get far more clinics, badminton clinics, than the rest of the other places, because they do have a higher count of kids playing badminton than anywhere else."

But there's a catch.

"One of our biggest weaknesses in Nunavut is the fact that our kids don't get to play with different people. They're all isolated," said Keoughan.

Quarter-finals and semifinal competitions are Thursday, and the fight for the medals on Friday.

"My kids are better than I am," said the hopeful Keoughan who's never played competitively.

"Tomorrow should be another today. It should be good."

• Watch the North American Indigenous Games
• LIVE BLOG | The North at the Indigenous Games: Catch athletes from Nunavut, N.W.T., Yukon in action​