(USA Ski Jumping photo via UND Today)
(By Joe Banish. UND Today) – UND was once again well represented at the XXV Olympic Winter Games in Milan/Cortina, with alumni bringing home a pair of gold medals in the process.
Former men’s hockey standouts Jake Sanderson (2020-22) and Brock Nelson (2010-12) captured the gold as members of the U.S. Hockey Team – the nation’s first gold medal for men in the sport since the famed “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.
The duo became the first former UND players to capture gold since Kristen Campbell, a hockey gold medalist for Canada in 2022. Counting her plus sisters Jocelyn and Monique Lamoureux, who won with Team USA in 2018, and Jonathan Toews, who played for Canada and won gold medals in both 2014 and 2010. UND has now produced at least one gold medalist in each of the last five Winter Olympic Games across men’s and women’s ice hockey.
Other Olympic gold medalists with a UND connection include Joe Polo, a Bemidji native who attended UND and, in 2018, earned gold as an alternate on the U.S. curling team. All told, “the University of North Dakota has a storied Olympic legacy, with alumni and former student-athletes earning a total of 17 medals (10 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze) as of the 2026 Winter Games,” Google’s AI engine reports.
FOLLOW US FOR INSTANT UPDATES!
