"Among the UND alumni, we have Brock Nelson, Jake Sanderson, who were both UND hockey standouts. T.J. Oshie, who was a member of the Washington Capitals and won the Stanley Cup in 2018, will actually be going as a broadcast analyst. He'll be doing studio coverage for NBC Sports. And then, of course, the Lamoureux sisters, Jocelyn and Monique, will be attending as members of the presidential delegation to the opening ceremony."
Joe Banish is a writer for UND's UND Today and has been following the alumni. He says while having a presence in Olympic hockey is not uncommon for UND, this year marks the first time the school has a student currently taking classes involved in the events. Paige Jones is part of the USA Alpine skiing team and, at the same time, is pursuing an online degree in biomedical engineering.
"The term we use is distant student because she's still interacting with her cohort and conducting research and doing all of the academic activities that an in-person student would do, but it's to accommodate her busy and demanding schedule as a member of the U.S. ski team competing on the World Cup circuit throughout Europe and East Asia and North America."
Banish says Jones and the skiing team will be in the spotlight early on in the games.
"Saturday, February 7th at 11.45 a.m. Central time. She'll be competing in the normal hill event, which is the shorter of the two ski jumps, and then she'll be competing on the large hill on Sunday, February 15th at the same time, 11.45 a.m. Central."
The 2026 Olympic Games begin Friday and run through the 22nd of the month.
