Pangnirtung athlete to carry Nunavut’s colours at Canada Summer Games

Benjamin Alivaktuk was “shocked” when his coaches told him he’d been selected as Nunavut’s flag-bearer for the 2025 Canada Summer Games.

The 20-year-old member of the beach volleyball team, will carry the territory’s flag during the Games’ opening ceremony, scheduled for 7 p.m. NT, Saturday at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s, N.L.

“I’m feeling good, but getting pretty nervous,” said Alivaktuk, of Pangnirtung.

A glance at his amateur sports record makes his choice as flag-bearer understandable.

He represented Nunavut on the volleyball court at the Arctic Winter Games in Fort McMurray, Alta., in 2022 and Alaska in 2024, and at the North American Indigenous Games in Halifax in 2023.

He earned the 2024 regional Tom Longboat Award through the Aboriginal Sport Circle, recognizing outstanding Indigenous people’s contributions to elite sport development in Canada.

Alivaktuk was head coach of Pangnirtung’s boys’ team at the 2025 Volleyball Nunavut territorial championships where they won the gold medal.

Alivaktuk is also known for organizing memorial tournaments in honour of people in the community who have passed away, said volleyball coach Rob Tomyn.

Despite his experience playing indoor volleyball, Alivaktuk has actually played beach volleyball for just two weeks.

“Beach is a totally different game because, first of all, it’s two-on-two so you’re touching the ball at least once a rally, where compared to indoor you could go a few rallies without touching the ball at all,” he said.

In indoor volleyball, each team has six players on the court.

Also, he said, beach volleyball’s sand surface is “a lot slower, so you have to be a quick player to move around.”

Alivaktuk and his beach volleyball teammate, Mathieu Baillargeon, 22, of Iqaluit, have been in Nova Scotia, training at the RBC Centre in Dartmouth since July 27.

Back home, off the court, Alivaktuk is working on a film project about the traditional life of his ancestors. Baillargeon works with the Department of Education.

The duo’s goal at the Games is “to have fun and compete,” Alivaktuk said.

The Canada Summer Games are held every four years, bringing together more than 2,000 athletes, making it the largest amateur multi-sport event in the country. Nunavut is sending a team of 72 athletes and 46 coaches, staff and ambassadors to the Games in St. John’s, which run from Aug. 8 to 25.