The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina have officially ended, and North Texas is celebrating hometown success — including Coppell’s Hannah Bilka, who is basking in a gold medal glow. Now, Bilka’s accomplishment with the women’s hockey team is inspiring another young athlete from DFW wh o hopes to follow a similar path to the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps. Bianca Birritieri’s love of hockey began in North Texas. “I grew up in Flower Mound, Texas, right across from the Walmart for people that live there,” Birritieri said. The 17-year-old played in youth leagues and graduated from high school early. She is now playing in Pittsburgh. She was the goalie when the USA Under-18 women’s team won the world championship, and she said her next goal is to make the larger USA women’s team. “One day I want to play in the Olympics … and then I want to make a career out of it, play professional hockey and have like a long career … hopefully in multiple Olympics. So that’s the end goal there,” Birritieri said. That opportunity could come as soon as 2030. Birritieri said it was inspiring to see the USA women’s hockey team win gold, including Bilka, someone she had had the chance to skate with and learn from. “It was a couple of summers ago, right before she was in her first season pro. She came out and shot a couple of times when I was skating in the summer and I got to skate with her a couple of times, work out with her a couple of times,” Birritieri recalled. As she continues training, Birritieri said she hopes her journey will motivate younger players watching from the stands and shared advice for girls who will, hopefully, one day see her in the Olympics. “If it’s something you want to do, just work towards it every day and have fun doing it. Like, that’s the biggest thing. I think if you have fun doing it and you want it, you work your hardest every day. You really can achieve whatever, whatever it is that you want,” Birritieri said. Birritieri said she will continue competing by playing for Providence College in Rhode Island, then hopes to go pro. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication. ...read more read less