Cameron Myler, a professor at NYU’s School of Professional Studies and a former U.S. Olympian, was selected to be an artist-in-residence for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. This year, Myler and six other former Olympians will have their art displayed by the International Olympic Committee.

“I was both surprised and honored by the request from the IOC,” Myler said. “Recently, my career has been mostly focused on teaching law and sports, so I was really excited.”

Myler, a four-time Olympian who competed in Olympic luge in 1988, 1992, 1994 and 1998, researches the legal issues surrounding international and Olympic sports. She was a member of the U.S. luge team for 14 years, winning the national championship seven times and being named USA Female Luge Athlete of the Year nine times.

“Olympian, lawyer, teacher, and artist, Cameron Myler embodies the unrelenting pursuit of excellence upon which the Olympic Games were founded, as well as the commitment to lifelong learning espoused by NYU’s School of Professional Studies,” NYU spokesperson Shonna Keogan wrote in a statement to WSN. “We’re immensely proud she was one of just a handful of visual artists selected to display her work at the Olympic Agora, where no doubt her work will inspire today’s Olympians in Beijing.“

Myler’s work will be displayed at the Olympic Agora cultural hub, a space to explore sports and culture through education and art. This year, the Agora program will be held online due to the pandemic.

“When the Olympics and Paralympics come around, you have 17 days of exciting competition,” Myler said. “But the Olympic movement is so much more than just the sport competitions. The Agora is a really unique and great way to highlight that.” 

Art has been an important part of Myler’s life since she was an undergraduate student at Dartmouth College. After losing her brother to cancer and sustaining multiple injuries during the luge season, she found comfort in her first studio art class.

“It was one of those things for me where I could be there in the studio and look up and realize three hours have passed,” Myler said. “I was doing something that was so completely engrossing and sort of magical. After that, I took as many art classes as I could before I graduated.”

Myler’s featured works center around Lake Placid, where her parents volunteered for the 1980 Winter Olympics and where she saw the Olympics in person for the first time. As a young girl, she visited the luge track every day.

Myler’s childhood inspired her to paint the 1980 Olympic opening ceremony, the ski competition site and a neighboring town. She layered the Olympic values — “Believe,” “Inspire” and “Unite” — onto the canvases to complete the collection. 

Myler’s teammates have recognized her in the past for embodying these Olympic values. Before competing in the 1994 Olympics, they selected Myler to carry the American flag at the opening ceremony.

Contact Antonio Pelaez at [email protected].