MCC Daily Tribune

SUNY Chancellor King Highlights SUNY Connection to Team USA Ahead of Winter Olympics

Alumni and Faculty Member Representing SUNY at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Albany, NY – On Friday, State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. highlighted that two SUNY alumni are part of Team USA who will be participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Sophia Kirkby is a North Country Community College alumna who will be competing as part of the women’s doubles luge team. Chris Lillis is an alumnus of Monroe Community College and will be competing in men’s aerials.

“We are beyond proud of SUNY alumni Sophia Kirkby and Chris Lillis as they represent Team USA, and SUNY, in the 2026 Winter Olympic games,” said SUNY Chancellor King. “I am excited to see our country come together during this year’s Winter Olympics and cheer on our incredible athletes as they represent the United States on the world stage. Congratulations to every Team USA member, especially our Team SUNY representatives.”

The SUNY Board of Trustees said, “The Olympics offer the entire world an opportunity to come together and celebrate fair competition in a multitude of different sports and athletic endeavors. Olympic athletes are rightly recognized as at the very pinnacle of their respective disciplines and have the singular honor of representing their nations on the world stage. We are proud of the SUNY connection at this year’s Winter Games, and we congratulate our SUNY alumna and faculty member, as well as everyone on Team USA, for earning this honor.”

About SUNY Winter Olympic participants:

Sophia Kirkby of Ray Brook will be competing in doubles luge. She graduated in December 2025, from North Country Community College, with an AS Business Management degree.
Chris Lillis is an alumnus of Monroe Community College, as well as an Olympic medalist and a four-time world championship medalist. He will be competing in men’s freestyle aerial skiing.

Along with the Team USA Olympians, Riccardo Bianchi, Ph.D., SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Associate Dean for the Foundations of Medicine in the College of Medicine and Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, returned to his hometown of La Spezia, Italy, last month as one of 10,001 Olympic Torch Bearers for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. When Dr. Bianchi stepped onto the Olympic Torch Relay route in La Spezia, he returned not only as a runner but as a son of the city, a neuroscientist, a leader in medical education, and a lifelong ambassador for health, discipline, and community.

SUNY offers athletic opportunities for students at all levels of competition from intramural and club sports to nationally ranked National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), or United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) sports teams. Statewide, SUNY has over 85 NCAA Division I, 290 NCAA Division III, and 385 NJCAA athletic teams, as well as hundreds of non-competitive athletic clubs.

About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit the Suny website (suny.edu).

Veronica Chiesi Brown
Community Relations
02/09/2026