Medicine Hat's Wade Peterson was the only representative from the city at the Paris 2024 Olympics. As a referee and judge for Boxing. Ross Lavigne/CHAT News

By Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat Boxing official returns from 2024 Paris Olympics

Aug 13, 2024 | 6:10 AM

The 2024 Paris Olympics have concluded with the lone representative from Medicine Hat returning.

There were no local athletes competing at the games this year, however Wade Peterson was selected to officiate in boxing.

Peterson was one of two officials selected from Canada for the games, both from Alberta.

He said that of the 235 bouts at the Olympics, he was able to judge 52 and referee 12, leaving him involved in one in every four of the boxing matches.

“It’s a long, hard road to get there. I’m glad I did get there and get chosen and it happened to me that I got two finals at the Olympics, which is unheard of,” Peterson said.

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“We have 40 officials when we start. We had about 30 at the end that are eligible to referee and judge.”

Peterson was excited to be chosen to referee the final boxing match of the Olympics, the 92 kilogram plus mens final.

This could be the final boxing event held at the Olympics as there is no guarantee the event will be at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Peterson said this will be his last time officiating internationally, which he has had the opportunity to do numerous times over the last few years.

Peterson began as a referee and judge for boxing in 1987, taking time off from 1992 until 2002 while raising his family.

“About 2011 I started my nationals at the Canadian Winter Games in Nova Scotia, and then from there I’ve been doing every nationals in Canada,” Peterson said.

“In 2018 I got my second star in Romania and then my third star in Serbia the next year and things just kept going from there. I retired from Goodyear in 2019 and then that gave me flexible time to travel and do the things,” he added.

“I’ve been all over the world. I’ve been to Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru. I’ve been to European Games in Minsk, Belarus 2019. All over Africa, Colombia. I’ve been a lot of places. So it’s been pretty blessed on the travel. So it’s neat.”

Fifteen hour days where included in the early stages of Peterson time officiating in Paris.

“It was busy, but the last week was really good because we didn’t have fights till nine o’clock at night,” Peterson said.

“We had all morning, all day to travel and explore Paris. So it was really, really fun.”

The officials at the event were constantly judged themselves to decide who would officiate the next event.

Peterson said he would find out during the first round of the prior fight if he was up in the rotation of the next bout.

“Every boat that we do and every round that we get marked on, we get critiqued by an evaluator,” Peterson said.

“If you’re wrong one round, you can be sat for the next session. It’s the pinnacle of everything. Everybody wants to be at the Olympics.