Mathieu Laforest is enjoying a gold rush that would have made any Yukon prospector jealous.

Laforest captured a pair of gold medals Monday at the Canada Winter Games, making him the first double gold medallist of the event.

The Laval, Que., native beat Chris Lee of B.C., 22-20, 21-14 in singles action, then teamed with younger brother Francis to defeat Brody Hilland and Justin Mullaly of Alberta in men's doubles.

Laforest, who also won two golds at the 2003 Canada Games in Bathurst and Campbellton, N.B., may not be finished yet. The personable 23-year-old will take part in the team competition beginning Tuesday, making Quebec the prohibitive gold-medal favourite.

Laforest, an eight-time national champion, had some early trouble with Lee, who pushed the tournament's top seed to 20-20 in the first set. From there, Laforest took control with a series of deft drop shots and punishing smashes.

With a vocal throng cheering every point, Laforest clinched his first Canada Games singles title when Lee hit a return into the net.

Laforest admitted suffering some jitters during the championship match with Lee.

"Between the first and the second set, I wasn't feeling as comfortable as I normally do at the net," said Laforest. "Feeling not as comfortable, I was stuck in defence a lot."

Expectations were high for Laforest, who carried the Quebec flag at last week's opening ceremony. He didn't disappoint, blazing through both the singles and doubles draw without dropping a set.

"In terms of level of competition here in Canada, it's as good as it gets," said Laforest. "To share it with your brother and a few friends that you've been competing with in Quebec for a long time is very special emotionally."

Francis went one step further.

"This is probably one of the biggest wins of my career," said Francis. "This is just as good as any win I've ever had."

The Laforest brothers are both calm customers off the court, and vocally passionate on it. Mathieu made no apologies for his fiery demeanour, which included yelping and pumping his fist after several key points.

"I used to be a very bad loser," said Mathieu. "Now, the way I control my emotions is to actually let it out in a good way and a positive way. I'm the first one to congratulate an opponent for a good shot, but I'm also shouting a lot for my good shots."

Quebec head coach Claude Tessier praised Mathieu for his leadership skills.

"He's the leader for sure," said Tessier. "Not only on the boy's side, but for the whole team. All the players are very respectful towards Mathieu, not only for what he's done in competition, but also what he's done off the court."

Francis, 19, attributes much of his success to his older brother.

"Mathieu is such a good thinker," said Francis. "He knows the game and sees the game so well. He has helped me so much with my game, my tactics and my techniques."

Mathieu said his success at the 2007 Games is tempered with a desire to expand his horizons beyond the badminton court. As an engineering student at McGill University in Montreal, he's well on his way to accomplishing that.

"I was competing a lot in badminton four years ago," said Laforest. "Now I'm studying a lot in university, and it has become priority No. 1. Badminton is part of my daily objectives, but it's still priority No. 2."

That doesn't mean Mathieu is ready to relinquish the family title to Francis.

"We played a few times this year, and he clobbered me," joked Francis. "It's not a rivalry yet. If I beat him once, then we can talk about rivalry. But not right now."