UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Dan Barefoot graduated from the College of Arts and Architecture’s Stuckeman School in 2013 with a degree in landscape architecture, a career in Olympic sport was not necessarily part of the plan.
Today, as a member of Team USA in skeleton, Barefoot’s life shows how the skills developed at Penn State can translate far beyond the classroom. Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled — called a skeleton bobsled — down a frozen track while lying face-down and head-first.
Barefoot's experience represents an intersection of design and elite athletics. He explained his journey from studio critiques to athletic competitions illustrates the discipline and mindset fostered during his time at Penn State.
As a landscape architecture student from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Barefoot experienced the rigor of studio-based learning — an environment defined by collaboration, design and critical feedback. Those demands helped cultivate resilience and focus, he said.
Landscape architecture requires students to think spatially, solve complex problems and refine ideas. For Barefoot, he said, those habits of persistence would later be essential in his athletic endeavors.
“Penn State set me up for success,” Barefoot said. “Even if you [students] don’t realize it now, all the skills you learn from Penn State are skills you will use in your future. Penn State gave me all the skills I needed to be successful in my sport and my job.”
In his academic career, Barefoot was described as an eager student who got the most out of his time at Penn State. According to Kenneth Tamminga, who was one of his professors, Barefoot was a pleasure to work with.
“Dan was an all-round excellent student and a joy to teach,” Tamminga, a distinguished professor emeritus of landscape architecture, said. “He brought a kind of eye-on-the-prize outlook and a fearless curiosity that was bound to play out well in future endeavors.”
Aside from Barefoot’s exceptional academic work, Tamminga described him as an overall likeable and generous man who was keen to get to work every day.
Outside of the studio, Barefoot was an active person. He mentioned he was always looking for something to do outdoors after long hours of designing.
Barefoot was on the club baseball team on the weekends and a member of the fly-fishing club. He grew up fly fishing and took advantage of the advanced classes that Penn State offers during his time at the University.
Barefoot’s need to be outside, he said, later contributed to his athletic career in skeleton. After Barefoot graduated from Penn State and entered his career as a landscape architect, he realized he wanted to do more than his daily routine.
“I started looking things up to do close to Philly during winter, expecting to find a hill to snow tube or somewhere to ice skate, but a winter Olympics list pops up,” Barefoot said. “I wasn’t expecting it, but out of curiosity I started reading about skeleton and just decided to start training for it.”
Over a couple of years, in between moving cities and jobs, Barefoot was training in his sport. When he moved to Florida, he tried out to get invited to the Olympic training center in Lake Placid, and with hard work and perseverance, he scored enough points.
Nine years later, Barefoot debuted his athleticism at the 2026 Winter Olympics with Team USA in Italy.
Skeleton is one of the most technically demanding winter sports. Individual athletes race headfirst and face down on a small sled along a precise ice track. Skeleton requires the slider to have their chin as close to the ice surface as possible.
The athletes sprint for about 30 meters with their sled, getting maximum velocity before diving into it. Once in motion, they rely on subtle body movements, using their knees, shoulders and heads to control the sled and change directions.
Barefoot described his sport as not only physically demanding, but extremely mental.
“This is true for any sport. You can be the most incredible athlete in the world, but if your head’s not on straight, you’re going to suck,” Barefoot said. “You can be in a sport for 10 years, have one off day and perform like you’ve been doing it for one year.”
Athletes in the Olympics have a separate life outside of their sports. For Barefoot, he said, he continues his career in landscape architecture.
After his first job, Barefoot moved to Orlando to work for AECOM, a large design company. He said his most memorable project was working on a Universal Studios Beijing resort for about five years.
While going back and forth between training and work, he later decided to work for a smaller firm in Charlotte called V3 Companies. With that change, he could work remotely while simultaneously training in Lake Placid, he said.
Although landscape architecture and skeleton may appear unrelated, Barefoot said he sees parallels. Using his past opportunities and experiences from Penn State, Barefoot said he realized there are several connections between his academics, career and sport.
“I chose Germany when we had to pick somewhere to study abroad, and surprisingly, which I didn’t realize at the time, skeleton is very German- and Austrian-based,” Barefoot said. “Germany has four skeleton tracks itself, so whenever I went for my first race, I wasn’t shocked. It [study abroad] set me up well learning languages and finding my way around Europe.”
Remaining composed under critique, balancing schedules and problem solving are not just skills that Barefoot said he uses in his career as a landscape architect, but also as a skeleton athlete.
Barefoot’s journey highlights the opportunities available to Penn State students and alumni, he said — his experience demonstrates that the skills developed in one field can open new doors in unexpected ways.
From the Stuckeman School to international competition, Barefoot said his path reflects consistent themes of preparation, resilience and the ability to translate knowledge across disciplines — all skills he acquired in college.
“There’s so many requirements, expectations and things that are pulling you all over the place in college, and if you can handle that, you can do anything you want in the real world,” Barefoot said. “All it takes is the decision to say ‘yes,’ and do what you know.”