Ty Lindeman is going for gold for Team Alberta at the Canada Winter Games.
“Goal number one is take Alberta to victory,” said the St. Albert badminton player. “It would be nice to place well in the individual events and then hopefully we know what to do in the team event to get Alberta that gold medal.”
Badminton is one of 19 sports at the Canada Games, starting Feb. 13 at Prince George, B.C.
“It’s under 23 for the males and under 21 for the females for badminton so there is a lot of the older players that were playing at nationals in an age group up from myself,” said Lindeman, last year’s U19 national silver medallist in singles, doubles with Austin Bauer of Calgary and mixed doubles with Takeisha Wang of Edmonton.
This is Lindeman’s second year in the U19 division and the 17-year-old is ranked first in mixed with Wang and second in singles and doubles with Bauer.
The Grade 12 Paul Kane High School student has played competitively with Bauer and Wang for more than five years at the national and international levels and their partnerships will continue at the Canada Games.
“Last year, Austin and I actually found the play style that suits us the best with me at the back more. I like to keep the pressure on and keep smashing and he just cuts everything off at the front. We apply a lot pressure that way. It was actually when I was injured last year (strained abdominal muscle) that we developed the strategy,” Lindeman said.
“For the last two years with Takeisha during our two-hour lesson every weekend (at the Royal Glenora Club) we just focus on mixed doubles and the strategies behind that against older players that have the experience and they kind of teach us the ropes and help us find our game.”
Lindeman is also working on playing a more aggressive brand of badminton than in previous years.
“I tend to play a very passive game so my coaches are trying to get me to focus on taking more risks and just put myself out there a little more,” said the inductee into the Gator Sports Hall of Fame for Lorne Akins School graduates who represented Canada internationally or played professionally.
At two U19 national level events this season in Edmonton and Winnipeg, Lindeman placed first in mixed doubles with Wang and second in doubles with Bauer in both tournaments and was second in singles in one of them.
At the Canada Games, the game plan is to scout out the opposition in the individual events prior to the team event, a best-of-five series involving men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
“The individual events, which happens first, are doubles and mixed and then for the team event they can put me in wherever they want,” said Lindeman, who competed for Canada at the U19 junior worlds in Malaysia last year and at four Pan American Junior Championships, featuring the top badminton players in the Americas.
This year’s Pan Am championships are in Mexico and Lindeman is confident he will meet the selection criteria based on the national rankings and point totals from three out of five sanctioned tournaments and nationals.
“I’m in good shape,” said the 2013 Pan Am gold medallist in mixed with Wang and silver medallist in doubles with Bauer in the U17 division.
