Western New York Native To Compete In Winter Olympics

Western New York will be represented when the 2022 Olympics kick-off in Beijing, China on February 4th.

Buffalo native Tricia Mangan will be part of the USA ski team after she qualified for the team this month.

Mangan is an Alpine skier and these Olympics will be her 2nd one. She was on team USA in 2018 where she finished 9th in the team Alpine event and recorded a DNP in the giant slalom.

She grew up in Buffalo and attended High School at Nadin Academy and is part of the Holimont ski team.

Mangan will be joined by two other Western New Yorkers in China for the Olympics. Ice dancer Kaitlin Hawayek will be on the US team this Olympics after just missing the team in 2018. Hawayek is from East Aurora and has been on the national ice dancing scene since 2012.

Also in Bejing, this Olympics will be USA Woman Hockey player Hayley Scamurra. Scamurra is a forward for Team USA and has been with the team since 2019.

The Bejing Olympics will take place from February 4th until February 20th. This Olympics will be impacted by COVID-19 as well. Several more residential areas near Olympic Arenas have been closed off due to new positive cases of COVID-19.

34 COVID-19 cases were confirmed among athletes and others who have come for the Olympic Games, so far according to Olympics officials. 211 people have tested positive among more than 8,000 who had arrived by the end of last week.

The opening ceremonies will look a little different this year due to COVID-19 as well. There will be a limited amount of spectators in the stands. The opening ceremonies will kick off at 6:30 am on February 4th because of the time zone difference between Bejing and Buffalo.