UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Senior forward Tessa Janecke will represent Penn State on the United States Olympic women’s ice hockey team this February in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games. She becomes the first player in program history to be named to the U.S. Olympic women’s ice hockey team and the second Olympian overall, joining Jessica Adolfsson ’21 who skated for Sweden in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
Janecke enters the 2026 Olympics with significant international experience under her belt, having played in 38 games with the United States women’s senior national team between the IIHF World Championships and the Rivalry Series versus Canada. In those games, Janecke has 13 goals and 15 assists for 28 points.
The Orangeville, Ill. native has three medals at the IIHF World Championships (two Gold – 2023, 2025 and one Silver – 2024). She played the hero in the 2025 Gold Medal game, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime to lift the United States over Canada.
At the halfway point of her senior season, Janecke has already cemented herself as the greatest player in Nittany Lion program history. She has the most career points at 180 in 131 games played. Her 74 goals are tied for the most in program history with Natalie Heising ’22 and her 106 assists are also a program record.
Janecke has garnered nearly every award possible in her time in Hockey Valley, beginning her career being named both the AHCA and USCHO.com National Rookie of the Year. She followed that up with back-to-back AHCA/CCM All-American Honors while being named the AHA Player of the Year in 2023-24 and 2024-25 on top of numerous Forward of the Month and Forward of the Week awards both nationally and within the AHA and CHA.
The women’s ice hockey portion of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Winter Games begins Feb. 5 with the United States kicking off competition against Czechia. The U.S. is in Group A with Canada, Czechia, Finland, and Switzerland.