Several athletes from Pennsylvania are competing in the Milan Cortina Winter Games.
Summer Britcher, from York County, is competing in the Olympics for the fourth time. She attended Susquehannock High School and has a successful career in Luge.
“I have three older siblings, and it was really important to me that I beat them, so I just kept going again and again and again,” she said, recalling how an encounter with a luge event at Ski Liberty at age ten inspired her career.
“Luge is not a sport that’s easy on the body, and I’m 31 now, this time around, so definitely have to take a bit more recovery time.”
She formerly competed in the Olympic Games in Beijing, Pyeongchang, and Sochi.
Andrew Heo of Warrington, Bucks County, will compete in speedskating. He made his first U.S. national team at 17 and debuted at Beijing 2022.
In 2025, Heo won his first ISU Short Track World Tour race, the 500-meter, before traveling to the 2026 Olympic Games.
“It’s good momentum going into the Games, they’re stepping stones – lots of little wins, and this is a big win,” Heo said.
Vincent Trocheck, New York Rangers center and western Pennsylvania native, is competing as a member of the U.S. Hockey Team. He was drafted by the Florida Panthers in the third round in 2011, is a two-time NHL All-Star, and played for the U.S. in last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
Tessa Janecke, a Penn State women’s hockey forward, will compete in the 2026 Milan Winter Olympic Games. Originally from Illinois, Janecke starred at the North American Hockey Academy and captained the Winter Hawks.
Ava McNaughton, native of Seven Fields, Pennsylvania, started playing hockey at age 6. She attended a girls’ hockey program at Bishop Kearney, a private school in Rochester, New York. She then attended the University of Wisconsin. She was named to the U.S. women’s ice hockey team for the 2025 IIHF World Championship and made her debut for Team USA in a group play win over Switzerland.
