Paralympic Gold Medalist Honored By Fellow McDonogh Students

Ian Silverman wanted to get to school early on Wednesday for the first day of his junior year at . But his brother, Schuyler (pronounced Skylar), was not making it easy.

“We just kept getting delayed for random things and then I had to get gas,” Silverman, 16, said. “When I got gas, my brother said he has to go to the bathroom. Next thing I know, he’s locked himself in the port-o-potty.”

But it was all part of a plan.

When they got to school, Silverman was greeted by several classmates, including junior class president and close friend Will Cosgarea, who was sitting in a patriotically decorated golf cart.

Silverman wasn’t at school when it started on August 29 because he was competing in the Paralympic Games in London. He came home with a gold medal, having set a new personal and paralympic record in the 400-meter freestyle swim. See the video here.

Silverman thought the golf cart ride was his big welcome back, but when he and Cosgarea got to the top of the hill and drove to the quad, he was greeted by more than 500 of his upper school classmates and taken for a victory lap.

“I’m completely blown away, completely overwhelmed,” Silverman, a Rodgers Forge resident, said. “I’m just speechless really.”

Silverman suffers from bilateral spasticity, a condition from mild cerebral palsy that affects his calf muscles. He can’t walk flat-footed, which he said affects his ability to swim.

“I’ve been swimming with it my whole life, so I’ve just found ways to do my best to deal with it,” he said.

He is still basking in the afterglow of his record-breaking swim on September 5.

“It just felt like a dream. When I woke up the next morning, I had to watch the video just to make sure that was me,” he said. “It was the most incredible feeling in the world.”

It was a much-needed joyful moment for McDonogh and the school’s swim team, who lost of Owings Mills to a car accident in July. The rising senior—Will’s brother and Silverman’s best friend—was considered and even had his own business.

“It’s been a rough summer,” Will Cosgarea said. “But the fact that Ian had the same summer, the very rough summer, and he went and got a gold medal just inspires me.”

Other students found comfort in Silverman’s gold medal win.

“A lot of people are having trouble dealing with [Alec’s death],” said Joseph Arcuri, a sophomore who took part in the celebration. “So it helps bring them back up a bit.”

Silverman’s mother, Dawn, said it her son didn’t want to go to London after Alec’s death, but the Cosgarea family talked him into it.

“They were the only ones who could convince him,” she said.

The win was a “nice bright spot” for the school, said Scott Ward, McDonogh’s aquatics director and swim coach.

“That win was for Alec,” he said. “When I watched that race I knew what he was swimming for.”