Editor's note: this is part of a series of features being published on the various sports which make up the 2007 Canada Winter Games, and the athletes who will be representing the Yukon in them.

No other projectile in any sport travels faster not an Al MacInnis slap shot, nor a Roger Clemons fast ball or a Serrna Williams tennis serve than a shuttle off the face of a badminton racket.

At 330 kilometres an hour (206 mph), its absolutely the fastest on record, says badminton coach Michael Muller of Yukon's Canada Winter Games team.

When Muller coached the Northwest Territories team at Cornerbrook, Nfld. in 1999, not only was the birdie moving at Mach 1, but the schedule itself was grueling.

From sun-up to sundown, the matches filled the days.

Potentially, in a single day, a couple of four Yukon representatives could play up to six, best-of-three matches, involving anywhere from 12 to 18 games, each game going to 21.

The Yukoners, though, have been training for what Muller describes as an elite level in the sport that will most certainly showcase future Olympians.

'I think with where we are with the team is really exciting,' Muller says in an interview this week leading up to Friday's opening ceremonies, and the first of seven days of competition beginning first thing Saturday morning with the singles competition.

'We have intense athletes that are really committed to their sport, and to their performance.'

Representing the Yukon will be Ally Fraser, 15; Landon Kulych, 19; Kaleb Dawe, 17; and Richard Fulop, 14.

Players have been training to the point where they literally lie down on the court from exhaustion, to the point where feet blister and bleed.

In the sport of badminton, says Muller, it's a game of explosive speed and finese.

To pick the team, a selection committee was convened to choose an initial squad of 12 from a tryout camp.

Muller explains while the Yukon could have carried a maximum of 10 players five men and five women it was decided to keep the roster to the four whom the committee felt were ready and able to compete at the Winter Games level.

And for the last three months, they've been working out three times a week, in addition to the cross-training in other sports and doing individual preparation.

'We have gone through quite a selection and training process, and we hope we have made these athletes the best they can be to compete against the rest of Canada.'

Ali Fraser, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student at Porter Creek Secondary School, is the only female competing in the ladies division.

Starting out in badminton six years ago while living in Cold Lake, Alta., Fraser says she stayed with the sport because of how much faster it is compared to other indoor sports.

'And you are always learning new things,' says Fraser, who also plays soccer and high school basketball.

'It is always a challenge, and especially when you play really good people.'

As the only female, Fraser may be one of two Yukoners who could face a full, day-long card of games, playing in both the singles and mixed doubles divisions.

Like many Yukon athletes across the board, she recognizes the challenge of coming from a small jurisdiction and competing against the best in the country.

'I am really starting to get excited because I'm going to learn so much from these players,' says Fraser. 'Hopefully I can use what I learn to help me become better and go further.'

'She is a very good athlete, and she is very powerful,' says Muller. 'And that is one of the key things about badminton, because it is a game of, sort of, controlled explosiveness.

'It's all about going from zero to full speed to stop, to full speed, to stop, to full speed . . . .'

An analysis of the physical aspects and requirements of the sport show that on average, a badminton player will sprint up to just under a kilometre a game, Muller points out.

His words, his manner of speaking, reveal Muller's passion for the sport.

'This is about the Games,' he says of the past months of training directed to the next week of competition. 'But it is a beginning here that is about maintaining and growing a high-performance program.

'These people know that it is about the Arctics (Winter Games) coming, and the Westerns coming,' says Muller. 'It is about continuing to grow so they can participate in other Games and competitions.'

For now though, for the immediate, the goal is to play 'the best we can, whoever we face.'

As a former member of the University of Ottawa team who once competed at the nationals though quite unsuccessfully, he jokes Muller knows the calibre of competition the Games will feature.

The male single's champ at Cornerbrook in 1999, he points out, went on that year to become the Canadian singles champion.

Landon Kulych, a 19-year-old, first-year student at Grant MacEwan College where he is a member of the badminton team, says even play at the Alberta college level won't be up to the standard here next week.

'I mean the players that will be playing here are still two or three steps ahead of what I have been seeing,' Kulych acknowledges.

He points out that with the age limit at 23 a maximum of two for each team he could still be facing players four years his senior.

Kulych says he hasn't set any expectations, though he is confident that both his college coach and Muller have given him the stable footing he'll need to compete.

Muller, he says, has been outstanding in his preparation of the team.

'It's not so much what you can do on the court,' says Kulych, referring to the physical aspects of the game, like smashes and drop shots. 'But what you can see on the court.

'Something as simple as knowing where opponents feet are on the court can help you realize where your next shot has to go.

'He has definitely helped bring my game and the game of my teammates up a notch,' says Kulych of coach Muller.

And with hometown advantage, and the crowd behind you, who knows, he says, 'You could play the best game of your life.'