Team Nunavut wrestlers to hit the road

With less than a month before the Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, N.L., Team Nunavut’s wrestlers might lack experience, but coaches are working to change that.

“Our goal as a team is to be competitive at the Games,” coach Chris Crooks said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

Athletes from across Canada are set to converge on Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital to compete in dozens of sports, such as basketball, archery and wrestling, with events set to run Aug. 8 to 25.

Nunavut’s 20-member wrestling team is young — the athletes’ average age is under 16 years. To ease their learning curve, coaches have packed the summer with “intense” southern training opportunities, including participation in the Battle in the Rockies Wrestling Camp in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., July 26 to 31.

The athletes will then visit the University of Alberta in Edmonton for more training and team-building. The athletes head to Deer Lake, N.L. for some final pre-competition training on Aug. 7 before arriving in St. John’s for the competition.

Iqaluit wrestler Jaden Niviatsiak, 17, is competing at the Games for the first time after entering the sport in fall 2022.

He has mixed feelings as he trains, he said, but seeing friends on the road and meeting new friends inspires him.

“I feel nervous and slightly excited to go to the Canada Summer Games,” he said. “My goals for this competition are to meet new friends and spend time with other friends I met at past competitions.”

In addition to Iqaluit, the other wrestlers come from Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Cambridge Bay, Baker Lake, Clyde River, Coral Harbour, Pangnirtung and Chesterfield Inlet.

The coaching staff also includes Haley Heffel and Isaiah Springer of Cambridge Bay, and Loryn Muswagon of Thunder Bay, Ont. Team manager is Paula Cziranka from Cambridge Bay.

Team Nunavut first joined the Canada Games in 2001, two years after the territory was established. ‍

Since then, Team Nunavut has won two Canada Games medals: a gold in wrestling at the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Ontario’s Niagara region, won by Eekeeluak Avalak of Cambridge Bay in the 52-kilogram weight class; and a bronze in judo at the 2007 Winter Games in Whitehorse, won by Eugene Dederick of Iqaluit in the 100-kilogram weight class.