Ask Makayla Kaludjak what sport she plays and you’ll get a list. 

“I did wrestling for a bit, softball during the summer, volleyball, hockey, soccer. I think that’s it,” she said, laughing.  

Kaludjak is a multi-sport athlete for Team Nunavut that’s gone to the past three Arctic Winter Games (AWG) for three different sports. The first time, she went for futsal, then she went for hockey and now she’s competing with the volleyball team. 

Most athletes would be happy if they made a territorial team, but athletes like Kaludjak get to pick and choose which sports they go for. This AWG, she chose to go for volleyball.  

“I felt more confident in volleyball this year. I was practising a while, and that’s my sport back home,” she said. “I wanted to switch it up a little and try different sports at the Arctic Winter Games. I wanted to be a multi-sport person that goes to AWG so I was switching it up every year.”

Losing love for one sport, finding love in another 

Another Nunavut multi-sport athlete, Mia Hainnu, said she switched sports because of the people. 

Hainnu went to the last AWG for futsal, and then last summer she started doing Arctic Sports with friends and got hooked. 

“I tried coming back to [futsal] but I didn’t have the love for the sport anymore. So I just kinda transitioned to something more individual and independent,” she said.   

Hainnu doesn’t regret her choice at all and says she prefers Arctic Sports over futsal. 

“I love Arctic sports so much. I’ll play soccer for fun every once in a while, but I think Arctic Sports is mine. I love it so much more,” she said. 

Hainnu said she didn’t find the switch from futsal to Arctic Sports to be challenging, but rather trying to balance all the practices can be tough.

“It’s a lot especially when practices are on the same day, but it’s fun,” she said. “I get a lot of active time and I get to meet new people in two different sports.”

Nunavut basketball player Jayna Kingunkotok says she plays many sports because there’s not much else to do in Baker Lake. Her weekly schedule is just full of practices. 

“On Monday, I play table tennis, and on Tuesday I play basketball and badminton, Wednesday basketball, Thursday is volleyball and badminton, and Friday, it’s my day off,” she said, laughing.   

Now, she is on the basketball team, but previously she went to two AWGs for futsal. Her basketball coach jokes that she “poached” her from the futsal team, but it was still Kingunkotok’s choice to switch over.  

Finding healing through multi-sports

For Kaludjak, she says playing this many sports is worth it.  

“It gets very hard, tiring, but it is also healing for me like it’s my escape from everything,” she said. 

She said she hopes other kids find healing and peace through sports, like she has.

“I want to encourage people to do that too, to play many different sports. It helped me through so much just by playing, being there, being on the floor, it helps people in many ways,” she said.