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Olympians descend on ‘Goldthorne’

The sign welcoming drivers into Silverthorne from eastbound Interstate 70 at exit 205 reads “Welcome to Goldthorne” after local Red Gerard won Olympic gold in the men's snowboard slopestyle in February and someone “fixed” the sign.
Eli Pace / epace@summitdaily.com

If you go

What: Silverthorne Homecoming Celebration

Where: Silverthorne Recreation Center, 430 Rainbow Drive

When: 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday

Info: The free community celebration will honor Silverthorne’s local athletes who competed at the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. For more, find the town of Silverthorne on Facebook.

Expecting a packed house and wanting to secure good seats, numerous people have been asking Silverthorne officials what time doors open for Saturday’s homecoming celebration to honor the town’s local Olympians and Paralympians.

The answer is 10 a.m., roughly 45 minutes before a procession beginning at the Silverthorne Outlets works its way down Rainbow Drive to the Silverthorne Recreation Center at 430 Rainbow Drive.

Overall, there are six Olympians and Paralympians who reside in or just outside of the Silverthorne community. All of them were on the town’s mind during Wednesday’s Silverthrone Town Council meeting, as staff ran down the lineup of events for the elected officials.



Four of the athletes have confirmed their attendance at the homecoming celebration, according to the town, including Paralympian Jimmy Sides, Olympic gold medalist Red Gerard, silver medalist Kyle Mack and Olympic qualifier Chris Corning, all snowboarders.

Running over the schedule of activities, staff said the procession with the athletes will kick things off starting at 10:45 a.m.



Invited to come with them will be vehicles and personnel from the Silverthorne Police Department, Summit County Ambulance Service, Lake Dillon Fire and Rescue, the Big Red Bus, along with students from Mountain Mentors riding a county vehicle and students from Silverthorne Elementary.

Once they reach the rec center and the crowd settles in, the Summit Community Concert and Summit High School Jazz bands will play, followed by an athlete presentation with Silverthorne Mayor Ann-Marie Sandquist presenting the athletes with a key to the city.

One of the ceremony highlights: four lucky students will get up on stage to each ask one question of the athletes. They submitted the questions through the school, and reading through the submissions was a fun job, staff said.

After the presentation, a live band will take the stage as people are invited to line up to meet the Olympians in person, as well as snap photos with the hometown heroes and get their autographs.

From there, the homecoming party will move to any one of three local breweries — Dillon Dam, The Bakers’ Brewery or Angry James — all of which came together to produce a new collaborative brew they’re calling “Medalthorne,” which they will be tapping Saturday.

Attending the celebration is free, but the town will be selling black “Goldthorne” T-shirts at the event.

“Can’t wait,” said Councilman Kevin McDonald.

Responding to a council question about how the athletes would put signatures on the black shirts, staff told the elected officials, “Don’t try to go to Office Max and try to buy any (gold or silver Sharpies) tonight.”


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