Meet 2 badminton players representing the North at the Canada Games

Casey Tai gets all the glory when it comes to the Northwest Territories Canada Winter Games badminton team.

That's because the 18-year-old is its only player.

"It's just me," said Tai. "It's a little tough...it's interesting. I'm just glad I can come here just to play and for the experience."

Tai didn't meet up with his Canada Games coach Jeremy Kielstra leading up to the games. This week Kielstra, who lives in Yellowknife, helped Tai in between games and offered him advice. 

Prior to that they hadn't seen each other in years. Obstacles like this one are nothing new for Tai. It's par for the course when you live where he does.

Tai is from Paulatuk, a remote hamlet in the N.W.T., with a population of 265. He started playing badminton when he was 11 and hasn't stopped since.

When he's not playing the sport, he's coaching others in an effort to build interest and grow the game in Paulatuk.

He said while people in his community do play badminton, he guesses only one other person in the community actually owns a racquet.

That person?

His mom.

"It's definitely a small place so it can be hard to play," said Tai. "It's a huge contrast to right now and playing all these different players from Canada."

Tai credits his mom, who is listed as his coach on the Canada Games website, and his younger brother for helping build his passion and his skill on the court.

"I love badminton, so I play as much as I can," said Tai. "I'm always trying to get better."

Tai won his opening two matches, advancing all the way to the third round.

And while Tai is the lone badminton player from the Northwest Territories at the games, he isn't the only badminton player that has come from a remote, northern place.

'It's the best'

Nunavut has sent nine badminton players to the Canada Winter Games, making the territory look like a hotbed for the sport compared with the N.W.T.

The Nunavut team would have had 10 athletes, but one got sick after accidentally eating raw polar bear meat.

Nunavut's Derrick Akeeagok has travelled to Red Deer, Alberta to compete this week — which was not an easy task. 

The 16-year-old is from Grise Fiord, an Inuit hamlet of 129 people and one of the coldest inhabited places in the world, with an average yearly temperature of −16.5 °C.

Like Tai, Akeeagok hasn't let the fact he's from an isolated community stand in the way of his love for the sport, or from becoming one of the best young badminton players in northern Canada.

It's amazing to be here.- Derrick Akeeagok, athlete from Grise Fiord, Nunavut

At the 2018 Arctic Winter Games he won gold in doubles and a silver in singles.

"It's amazing to be here," said Akeeagok. "It's the best and I couldn't ask for more."

And while Akeeagok lost both games to his Ontario opponent on day one of the competition, his Nunavut teammate Davidee Kudluarok did win a game.

The badminton competition continues at the Canada Winter Games until Saturday.