One-time Hill Resident Training to Compete in Olympics

A one-time Beacon Hill resident, Myles Silverman is now in Austria training in Alpine snowboard racing, with the goal of competing in the sport as a U.S. Olympian.

Daniela Ebner Photo
Myles Silverman is seen snowboarding during a recent Europa Cup competition in Simonhöhe, Austria.

Silverman, now 23, began skiing as a 1-year-old and took up snowboarding at age 6. He was living with his parents on Cedar Lane Way at the time, and his father would make the four-hour drive from Boston to Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine nearly every winter weekend, weather permitting.

Silverman’s family relocated to Brunswick, Maine, when he was around 7, but each summer until he was 10, his parents would return for the summers to live on Cedar Lane Way.

Silverman’s father took him as an 8-year-old to Torin, Italy, to see Seth Wescott, a family friend, who snowboarded in the 2006 Olympics – a trip that Silverman now credits for his decision to pursue the sport competitively.

When he was 10, Silverman decided to abandon skiing entirely to focus solely on snowboarding.

As for why he made this switch, Silverman said, “My Dad always had extreme skiing movies going when I was younger so I thought those guys were super cool, and I thought snowboarding was cooler than skiing, I guess.”

Silverman has been training in Austria for about a month now, and will remain there until mid-March. Besides training five or six days each week, he has also competed in two Europa Cups – one in Simonhöhe, Austria and another in Davos, Switzerland – during his time abroad.

“Striving for the Olympics is an expensive goal,” Silverman said. “I want to thank my family, who have been supporting me, and a great group of friends who’ve been supporting me as well.”

When he returns to the U.S., Silverman hopes to hit Sugarloaf until the end of the snowboarding season, and then he has his sights on attending camps in Europe or South America. 

And if he keeps going at his current pace, and with a few more competitions under his belt, Silverman thinks he has a shot at making the 2022 Beijing Olympics, or otherwise, he’s confident that, with six years of training, he can reach the 2026 Olympics in Milan, Italy.

“I’m just stoked to be on the journey,” Silverman said.

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