YELLOWKNIFE - Team NWT's work at the Skills Canada Competition last week left many competitors in awe.

"One of the New Brunswick people asked what we were feeding our team," joked Jan Fullerton executive director of Skills Canada NWT.

Cody Peterson, 20, won the gold medal for graphic design at the Skills Canada competition. - Jessica Klinkenberg/NNSL photo NWT medal winners Megan Welsh - Prepared Speech - Bronze Royce Schaff - Aircraft Maintenance - Bronze Kyle Wright - Heavy Equipment Service - Silver Cody Peterson - Graphic Design - Gold (post-secondary level) Tyler Heal - Graphic Design - Silver (secondary level) Tyler Janz - Plumbing - Bronze

With double the medals than last year, the NWT can be proud of their performance.

The sole gold medal brought home came in a category that the NWT has never competed in. The graphic design competitors were slim in Yellowknife, Fullerton said, but it yielded a gold medal at the national level.

Cody Peterson, 20, won the gold medal and could only talk excitedly about the competition.

Peterson, who has been involved in graphic design since Grade 9, described his experience at the competition as inspiring.

"You're with the best-of-the-best," he said.

"It was very overwhelming."

To Peterson the competition was on par with any Olympic event, but instead of the best athletes, he competed against the best graphic designers Canada has to offer.

Peterson said that going in he was confident. "I knew I could do my stuff."

The gold medal was a validation of all of the effort, work and support that teachers, friends and family had given him over the years.

"To me (winning gold) is a really big deal."

Peterson said like any competitive event, every territory and province showed tremendous pride.

"Team Ontario had these crazy cheers, and everyone knew Quebec was the team to beat."

He started out the competition rather roughly however. "My computer starts freaking out on me, the program isn't working right for me at all...and that adds to the pressure," he said recalling the start of the two-day competition.

He managed to pull through and grab the gold medal for team NWT, however.

"I was excited, I was pumped," Peterson said.

His passion for his job, and the competition was evident, though he said it was funny at times.

"You're competing with people in something that's normally your job."

Peterson is employed as a graphic designer with Artisan Press in Yellowknife.

This was the first time that the NWT has sent someone down to compete in post-secondary graphic design, and to grab the gold was momentous for Peterson in that regard as well.

"It makes the rest of Canada pipe up, that the NWT has stuff going on."

But being one of the newer competitors also helped him to work.

"I kind of like that, the ability to come through under the radar."

The experience was one Peterson said he would not soon forget.

"I'm definitely going to be involved with (Skills Canada in the future), that's how amazing of an experience it was."

Megan Welsh, a student at St. Patrick High school, came away with bronze in prepared speech.

She said that she learned ways to improve her speech skills in the future, like to move around more while speaking.

Welsh had been told to try the prepared speech competition at the territorial levels previously.

"A couple years ago somebody, a teacher, suggested that I try it."

Now that she's graduating she said, she decided to give it a try.

Like Peterson, Welsh said that meeting new people was one of the most positive experiences from the weekend.

"I made some friends from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia...there's people I've still been talking to from there," Peterson said.