BU Athletes Heading to Winter Olympics
A dozen current and former Terriers will be competing in men’s, women’s hockey, aided by former BU coaches
Jake Oettinger (COM’20) has been involved in USA Hockey since he was a teenager; he won a gold medal with both the USA Under-18 and Under-20 teams and is now competing for Team USA at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Photo by Rich Gagnon
BU Athletes Heading to Winter Olympics
A dozen current and former Terriers will be competing in men’s and women’s hockey, aided by former BU coaches
Driving around his home state of Minnesota to different hockey tournaments as a youngster, Jake Oettinger needed a way to kill time in the car.
“My favorite movie is Miracle, and I watched it a thousand times,” Oettinger (COM’20) says.
That was when Oettinger, who played for the Boston University men’s hockey team from 2016 to 2019, began dreaming about representing his country at the Olympics. Now 27, he’s realizing that ambition. He will be competing this month for Team USA men’s hockey at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Oettinger, now a goaltender for the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars, was at a team meeting when he saw that he’d missed a call from Bill Guerin, Team USA general manager. He ran out to the hallway and called him back right away: Guerin gave him the news that his dream had come true.
“I’ve never been so nervous making a phone call,” Oettinger recalls. “It was a huge sigh of relief, and all my nerves went away. After that I was just so excited to tell my wife and my family.”
Oettinger is one of 12 past or current Terrier men’s and women’s hockey players competing in Milano Cortina, Italy, over the next week and a half. On the men’s side, Jack Eichel (CGS’18), Clayton Keller (CGS’20), Charlie McAvoy (CGS’19), and Brady Tkachuk (CGS’21) are also playing for Team USA, while Macklin Celebrini (CAS’27) is suiting up for Team Canada. On the women’s side, current Terriers Luisa Welcke (CAS’26) and Lilli Welcke (CAS’26) are representing Team Germany, Nadia Mattivi (Questrom’23, MET’24) and Kayla Tutino (COM’15, MET’16) are playing for Team Italy, Andrea Brändli (MET’23) for Team Switzerland, and Marie-Philip Poulin (CAS’15) for Team Canada.
Additionally, five Team USA staff members have BU ties—Mike Sullivan (Questrom’90) is serving as head coach, John Hynes (Wheelock’97) and David Quinn (CAS’89) as assistant coaches, Chris Drury (CAS’98) as assistant general manager, and Chris Kelleher (CAS’98) as director of player personnel.
“It just goes to show you that the best players want to go to BU,” Oettinger says. “BU should be beaming with pride.”
A dozen Terriers competing marks a department record for BU, bringing a sense of pride to the players and the University. The five current BU players representing Team USA on the men’s side are the most from any NCAA school at this Olympics.
“You want to do great things for your family, for the places that you’ve been before,” Oettinger says. “That’s what would mean the most to me, representing my family and BU.”
For current BU Head Coach Jay Pandolfo (CAS’96), who coached Celebrini during the 2023-24 season, the sheer number of Terriers competing at the Olympics shows the influence former longtime Head Coach Jack Parker (Questrom’68, Hon.97) had on the program.
“It’s really impressive how he built this program, and it continues to go in a positive direction,” Pandolfo says. “We’re getting representation at all levels, which is great to see.”
Tara Watchorn (Sargent’12), head coach of the BU women’s hockey team, won a gold medal as a player representing Team Canada at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. She has vivid memories of the experience.
“Getting to share a lifelong dream with my teammates and family of winning gold was unforgettable,” she says. “Some special moments of the experience were the Olympic village, meeting the other Canadian athletes from every sport, along with the opening and closing ceremonies.”
As the Welckes set out to compete in this year’s Olympics, Watchorn has advised them to soak in the individual moments, especially the opening ceremonies, and to enjoy the small things, like the dining hall.
Mattivi was selected as captain for Team Italy, an honor she doesn’t take lightly. The opportunity to captain for her nation’s team on the biggest stage of sports is incredibly meaningful, she says, made more so by the fact that this year’s Games are in her home country.
“Having the support, familiarity, and energy of home adds another layer of motivation—it’s something I’ll never forget,” she says. “The home crowd’s energy makes it feel like having a seventh player on the ice.”
Instead of receiving a call informing her she had made the team, as Oettinger had, Mattivi learned the news through a letter. She describes it as a surreal moment, and says it took some time to process before calling her family to share the news.
She recalls watching highlights of the Sochi Olympics in 2014, the first time she saw women’s hockey on such an international stage. And she can’t wait to represent BU in the coming days, she says. “Watching those games made me feel proud of the athletes wearing their country’s colors, and I think that’s when the idea of wanting to be part of something bigger than myself really started,” Mattivi says.
“BU shaped who I am as an athlete and a person. Carrying that with me at this level is something I’m incredibly proud of, and I want to represent the program the best way possible.”