Local man to referee taekwondo in Tokyo
Preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, Eric Wah has worked out for up to four hours every day, performing cardio endurance drills, weightlifting for strength and yoga for flexibility.
But Edmonton's Wah, who leaves for Japan Tuesday, is not chasing a gold medal.
“I have been appointed a taekwondo Olympic referee and work extra hard to keep up with my younger colleagues,” says Wah, who sold his popular The King and I Thai Cuisine restaurant in Edmonton in 2017. “At 67 years of age, I will be the oldest taekwondo referee in Tokyo.
“I have had an 18-year ambition to become an Olympic referee and in doing so, I have travelled the world to attend different championships, becoming an Air Canada One Million Miler along the way.”
Wah, who gained his taekwondo black belt in 2001, says he competed in the sport, found he increasingly enjoyed its finer points and studied to become a qualified referee.
“This led to my joining 350 selected referees from around the world to attend different championships seeking to referee at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” he says. “Fifty of us were then selected to attend world qualification tournaments.
“Later, 20 of us were invited to a Tokyo test event in September 2019 and had no idea of the long haul ahead because of the COVID -19 pandemic.”
The selected few went in February and March 2020 to qualifying events in Rabat, Morocco, Australia's Gold Coast, and San Jose, Costa Rica.
“Sadly, the whole world shut down on March 14, 2020, due to the pandemic and the IOC announced the postponement of the Olympics to July 23, 2021,” Wah says.
But from May 2 to June 9 this year, Wah took 45 days off from his server's job to join his refereeing colleagues at the European and Asian qualification tournaments, the Pan Am Championships, and the Mexico Open.
Making it all worthwhile, says Wah, came on May 31, when he received a letter from World Taekwondo, the sport's governing body, telling him he had been selected as one of the 30 Olympic referees.
“Due to the Canadian government's strict travel rules, I could not come home between qualifying championships to avoid the 14-day quarantine periods,” he says. “Instead, I stayed in Salt Lake City, Istanbul and Dallas between tournaments.”
He arrived back in Canada on June 9, quarantined in a Vancouver hotel for three days before being allowed to come home to Edmonton, where he continued to isolate for another 11 days.
“A local state of emergency will keep fans out of the stands at the Tokyo Games,” Wah says. “These Olympics will be a vastly different from the ones filled with laughter and cheers I attended as a taekwondo volunteer in the Beijing, London and Rio Olympic Games.
“All athletes, coaches and officials must leave Japan as soon as their sport is over. We will also be constantly tested for COVID during our eight-day stay. I am just grateful the Olympics are going ahead for the sake of all athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers and the organizing committee.”
Wah managed three Calgary Keg restaurants in the late '80s and opened The King and I restaurant there during the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
In 1990, he expanded The King and I restaurants to Edmonton and for the last 12 years, he has also worked as a server for The Keg in Edmonton.
“The Keg managers knew about my Olympic ambition and were always accommodating when I needed time off to travel.”
Wah loves the hospitality industry and says he finds little difference between being a general manager-owner and a server.
“The most important thing is to satisfy the expectations of guests by providing excellent food, value and service,” he says.
SUMMER LOVIN' BBQ
Helping their friends back to some level of post-pandemic normalcy last week, hotelier Peter Parmar and his wife Sim joined with friends Tom Leah and Donna Zazulak to throw a BBQ party bought in September 2019.
“We purchased the dinner for 18 at the Wolf Cadillac 5 Star dinner supporting the Young Chefs of Edmonton's Culinary Federation,” Parmar says. “The dinner was worth the wait. Everyone was impressed by the Royal Glenora Club chef Steve Buzak, whose creativity and passion were reflected in the delicious, barbecued meal he created.”
Prawns and a fig-and-goatcheese flatbread featured in the starter. Two types of ribs, root vegetables and an offbeat serving of mac 'n' cheese were part of the main course. Sticky toffee pudding came as dessert.
“The Wolfe Cadillac 5 Star dinner supported the Edmonton branch of the Canadian Culinary Federation,” says Zazulak, the Wolfe Automotive Group's special initiatives director.
“The idea was to raise funds to send two young chefs to the national conference. Now scheduled for this fall, our chefs will compete, learn and network with other chefs at the conference.”