Myles Silverman doesn’t get on the snow as much as he’d like these days. But that’s not keeping him from having success on the snowboard.
Myles Silverman
Silverman, who lives in Brunswick, recently won two snowboard events – men’s parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom – in the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association national championships. It was the second year in a row that the 21-year-old Silverman, a junior at Hobart College in Geneva, New York, won those championships.
And considering that schoolwork takes up most of his time and limits his training, he was quite happy with the results.
“I guess it was more to prove to myself that I’m still a competitor, that I can still beat other college students from across the nation,” Silverman said. “It’s a goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year. I want to accomplish (my goals). They’re more of a driving factor to keep pushing myself every day, to keep training. And all those little goals lead up to those big goals.”
And that would be a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Silverman, who has competed in three world junior championships, knows he has a ways to go before that happens. But his success this year – he also had two impressive finishes in the World University Games in Russia – has motivated him to keep improving.
“It’s still feeding the fire,” said Silverman. “So it gets me excited for next season, keeps the drive alive. … When I look back on the season, I see improvement.”
So does his coach, Thedo Remmelink, a former Dutch Olympic snowboarder who now coaches at the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club in Colorado.
“He’s definitely getting better,” said Remmelink. “I see that he has more maturity. The way he deals with himself and everything around him has gotten better, even though he trains less.”
Myles Silverman won the men’s parallel slalom and parallel slalom in the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association national championships at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this month. Silverman took off three weeks from school at Hobart College to concentrate on the event. Photo courtesy of Myles Silverman
Silverman grew up in Boston, but was on skis by the age of 5, going to Sugarloaf with his family on weekends. They moved to Brunswick when he was 6, then he gave up skiing for snowboarding at age 11. He liked the image of the snowboarder and looked up to Seth Wescott, the two-time Olympic snowboard cross gold-medal winner who also calls Sugarloaf his home hill.
For high school, Silverman attended Steamboat Mountain School in Colorado. That’s where he was introduced to Remmelink, who trained him throughout high school. During that time, he also competed in the world junior championships in China.
After Silverman attended his first semester at Hobart, he took a year-and-a-half off to concentrate on his sport. He would compete in two more junior world championships as well as the 2017 World University Games in Kazakhstan.
But since returning to Hobart, where he has a double major in media and history, his training – and competitions – have been limited. The school does not offer varsity skiing or snowboarding. He works out in the gym, but when he wants to train on snow, it has to be during a school break.
When Silverman competed in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, in the World University Games in early March, it was just the second time this year he had stepped into the starting gate. “The competitors there definitely had an advantage on me, competing on the World Cup, training every day,” he said.
Still, Silverman finished 11th in the parallel slalom and 14th in the parallel giant slalom. Just over a week later, he was in Wyoming for the USCSA national championships, representing Hobart against schools of all sizes. He said he had to take three weeks off from classes to compete in those events and is now catching up on his school work.
Remmelink said he was impressed by Silverman’s results, considering his lack of training.
“I was surprised with how he was riding,” said Remmelink. “I saw that in training camp in Steamboat (earlier in the winter). He was riding quite well.”
Since Silverman began snowboarding as a pre-teen, Remmelink said some things come naturally to him. But, he added, “He is eager to learn. He asks me a ton of questions when we train.”
Silverman plans on taking classes this summer so he can graduate in 2020. He will also compete next winter on the World Cup circuit, where he hopes to do well enough to make the U.S. team.
“I know I need to compete more and show them the results,” he said. “Once I have my degree, then I can focus full time on training and trying to reach my goal.”
Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or:
mlowe@pressherald.com
Twitter: MikeLowePPH
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.