Howard Banford Siler Jr. (June 18, 1945 – July 8, 2014) was an American
bobsledder who competed from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.
Biography
Howard Siler won a bronze medal in the four-man bobsledding event at the
1969 FIBT World Championships in
Lake Placid, New York. Competing in two Winter Olympics, Siler's best Olympic finish was fifth place in the
two-man event at the
1980 Winter Olympics
The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States.
Lake Placid was elected ...
in Lake Placid. In all, he was a 5-time US champion and a 9-time member of the US World team.
in 1985, Siler served as the United States team coach and also as Chairman of the US Bobsled Federation Competition Committee. Siler later coached the
Jamaican
bobsleigh team that participated at the
1988 Winter Olympics
The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Calgary 1988 ( bla, MohkÃnsstsisi 1988; sto, Wîchîspa Oyade 1988 or ; cr, Otôskwanihk 1998/; srs, Guts†...
in
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
. He would be profiled as Irving "Irv" Blitzer (played by
John Candy) in the American film ''
Cool Runnings
''Cool Runnings'' is a 1993 American sports film directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Leon Robinson, Doug E. Doug, Malik Yoba, and John Candy. It is loosely based on the true story of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team's debut in competition ...
'' (1993).
Unlike the fictional Blitzer, Siler was employed outside his sporting activities, as an insurance executive. He died July 8, 2014 at his home in Clermont, Florida at the age of 69. In his obituary published by the Los Angeles Times, Siler's wife Debra Shea Siler is quoted as saying her husband was disappointed that ''Cool Runnings'' portrayed the Jamaican athletes as "cutesy, silly." Siler had agreed to coach the Jamaican bobsledding team because he found them to be serious and committed athletes.
References
External links
Bobsleigh four-man world championship medalists since 1930Interview with Jamaican bobsledder Devon "Pete" Harris featuring Siler
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American male bobsledders
Bobsledders at the 1972 Winter Olympics
Bobsledders at the 1980 Winter Olympics
Olympic bobsledders for the United States
1945 births
2014 deaths
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