A golden summer

Dr. Colton Wood is a 2016 graduate of the Medical Partnership and served as a USA Boxing team physician during the 2024 Summer Olympics.

I still remember an early 2013 spring afternoon while studying in my McGowan Road apartment in Athens when a dream was born in my heart – I thought of how primary care sports medicine would be a fantastic field to pursue. I had such a hard time only committing to one specialty at the expense of my love for all the others. I realized that it was in primary care sports that I could hold on to my love for each organ system and maximize my time in nonoperative orthopedics. After finishing residency at the University of Virginia and my primary care sports medicine fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I felt just as excited to be in this field as I did that day on McGowan Road. And to come full circle, after we settled in North Carolina back in 2020, I now serve as a team physician in the NBA with the Charlotte Hornets (starting my fourth NBA season this fall) and have served as a team physician at the Olympics with Team USA.

I completed two weeks as a team physician at the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado in May 2023 and was blessed to be invited on as a team physician with Team USA Boxing. I started with USA Boxing as a team physician in September 2023, and what an incredible ride of a year it has been! I served as a team physician at the US Boxing Olympic Trials in January this year, followed by my first overseas role as a Team USA physician in Assisi, Italy, at the Boxing World Qualifier Tournament #1. I was then invited to serve the USA Boxing Olympic Team in Paris this summer at the 2024 Olympic Games. From July 26 to August 6, I served as a team physician for USA Boxing at the Paris Games, and had the time of a lifetime. I worked alongside a medical team to provide care for four female and four male boxing athletes and treated conditions from respiratory viruses to facial lacerations to mental health to other ailments. During the two weeks, our team was thrilled to watch our own Omari Jones (71kg male) win a bronze medal to contribute to Team USA’s success in the Paris Games.

In between boxing matches that I covered for Team USA, I wrote national protocols for USA Boxing to establish standards of care on topics including concussion, laceration repair, wound care, joint trauma, and others. After the Games, I spent time with my amazing wife visiting sites such as the historic D-Day beaches of Normandy, the Palace of Versailles, the cathedral of Notre Dame, a private cruise down the Seine River, a tour of Paris by sidecar, and so many other great things. What a blessing this adventure was to me and my family. What a huge thank you I owe to the Medical Partnership for training and preparing me during my years of undergraduate medical education. I am forever grateful.