{"id":89599,"date":"2026-01-17T18:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89599\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T18:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T18:49:07","slug":"western-pennsylvania-native-qualifies-for-2026-winter-olympics-skeleton-sled-racing-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89599\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Pennsylvania native qualifies for 2026 Winter Olympics skeleton sled racing team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Western Pennsylvania athlete has reportedly secured a spot for the Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>On social media, Johnstown area native Daniel Barefoot announced his qualification for the US skeleton sled racing roster.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wjactv.com\/sports\/olympics\/hard-to-put-into-words-geistown-native-qualifies-2026-winter-olympics-skeleton-team-usa-athlete-pennsylvania-cambria-county-journey-daniel-barefoot-training\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Barefoot told NBC Affiliate WJAC;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Barefoot told NBC Affiliate WJAC<\/a> that he has been competing in the sport for the last nine years and has experienced a wide range of emotions along his journey to Milan.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s especially grateful for the financial support he\u2019s received along the way, since he wouldn\u2019t be where he is today without the help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReally quickly, you realize it not only takes everything that you\u2019re making financially, but it takes everything that you\u2019re able to hold mentally and emotionally, and if you really are gonna reach the top of where you\u2019re trying to get, it takes more than what you\u2019re capable of,\u201d Barefoot said.<\/p>\n<p>Barefoot is traveling to Europe for the official team naming ceremony on Saturday. Then, he\u2019ll go to Austria for training and acclimation.<\/p>\n<p>If you wish to support Barefoot\u2019s journey to Milan, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/barefoot-on-ice-a-journey-to-the-2026-winter-olympics?attribution_id=sl%3Adc39b8d9-f690-4ea2-bfa9-aa62b64e803d&amp;lang=en_US&amp;ts=1768492333&amp;utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&amp;utm_content=amp17_ta&amp;utm_medium=customer&amp;utm_source=copy_link&amp;fbclid=IwY2xjawPWL4tleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE0elRXOEROM3J0V3ltSGpHc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHlEPzK2ekf5lZOhde4F_lwztgdk_nu7U9ziDQArCzUY1pymwzkkd79_rrC99_aem_xqqNXsjGzc14D_7FwqmCCw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a GoFundMe has been created.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">a GoFundMe has been created.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:FREE WPXI News app;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Watch WPXI NOW;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Western Pennsylvania athlete has reportedly secured a spot for the Winter Olympics. On social media, Johnstown area&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[44362,44374,44378,44377,28,30,29,44376,44375,1419],"class_list":{"0":"post-89599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-barefoot","9":"tag-daniel-barefoot","10":"tag-johnstown-area","11":"tag-nbc-affiliate-wjac","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news","15":"tag-skeleton-sled","16":"tag-the-winter-olympics","17":"tag-western-pennsylvania"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}