Ohio State has a dozen reasons to cheer at the Olympic Winter Games

Nadine Muzerall has a dilemma.

The Ohio State women’s hockey head coach hails from Mississauga, Ontario, and anyone who has been north of the border knows what international hockey means to Canada. But with action at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games beginning this week, she has a personal connection to players on five different countries.

Twelve different players with Ohio State ties, including 11 Muzerall has coached and five current members of the squad ranked second in the nation, will be taking part in the tournament when it begins Thursday in Milano Cortina.

How does one pick favorites when you have so many connections in Italy?

“It’s gonna be tough to choose who I’m cheering for,” Muzerall said. “You just want the girls to do well that you’ve coached, and then whoever wins it, so be it. That’s the way I look at it.”

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Muzerall is in such a position because of the rise of the Ohio State program, which won NCAA championships in 2022 and ‘24 and made the title game in both ‘23 and ‘25 as well, under her watch. The 10th-year coach has built a dynasty in Columbus, taking a program that had never made the NCAA tournament before her arrival and making it one of the most consistently excellent teams in the country.

At 25-3-0 on the season, this year’s team will be in thick of the national title battle again, in part because of the five Olympians. Ohio State has three players set to play for Sweden (freshman forward Hilda Svensson as well as sophomore defenseman Mira Jungåker and freshman blueliner Jenna Raunio), one skating for Finland (freshman forward Sanni Vanhanen) and one representing Team USA (junior forward/defenseman Joy Dunne).

They’ll join Ohio State products competing for the United States (forward Hannah Bilka and defenseman Kayla Barnes), Canada (forwards Jenn Gardiner, Emma Maltais and Natalie Spooner as well as defenseman Sophie Jaques) and Switzerland (goaltender Andrea Braendli).

All but Spooner, who skated for Ohio State from 2009-12 and is heading into her fourth Olympics, played for Muzerall at Ohio State. It's another reminder that world-class athletes are playing mere miles from Nationwide Arena, and a testament to the program Muzerall has built.

“You feel like a parent,” Muzerall said. “There’s an immense amount of pride. You’ve known them since they were about 16 years old as you recruit them, and you see their growth over the years. They’ve worked so hard, as any Olympian would do, and it just shows a lot about our program here at Ohio State, how many kids we’ve been putting into the Olympics.”

Ohio State has been represented at every Olympic Games since women’s hockey play began in Nagano in 1998, a legacy started by five-time Finnish Olympian Emma Laaksonen, who competed each year from the inaugural tournament through 2014. Laaksonen was the only Buckeye to play in 2002 and ‘06 as well before being joined by Canadian gold medalist Tessa Bonhomme, American silver medalist Lisa Chesson and fellow Finn Minttu Tuominen in 2010.

Spooner made her Olympic debut in 2014 and was joined by Laaksonen and Tuominen, then five Buckeyes – Spooner, Braendli, Barnes, Tuominen and Finland’s Sara Säkkinen – competed in 2018. Four years ago, six players with OSU ties were in Beijing, including Maltais, Spooner, Tuominen, Braendli, Barnes and Joy’s sister Jincy.

Those players have combined for 12 medals including five golds, and this year’s dozen players with OSU ties helps further cement the Buckeyes as one of the preeminent developers of hockey talent in the country.

“It’s surreal,” Muzerall said before reconsidering her statement. “It is and it isn’t. It’s surreal that it actually happened, but the amount of hard work that my staff and I have done, it’s been earned, and same with the girls and how hard we work here. It’s very sexy on the outside to be a Buckeye. It’s bedazzling, but when you get behind these doors and what we do behind closed doors – (people) just see the product on the ice, but to get to where they are, it’s been hard and it’s been a grind.

“When we recruit kids, we want those kids that it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be hard. It’s our job to vet out those types of players and parents for that matter. I know when we recruit the right kid, they’ll do anything for themselves and for each other. It’s earned, and I’m just happy for them.

For Dunne, it’s the collision of two family traditions – playing for Ohio State and participating in the Olympic Games. The youngest of six children from a hockey family, Dunne’s sisters Jincy and Jessica both played for Ohio State, and their Columbus ties were only strengthened when their brother, Joshua, skated for the Blue Jackets organization from 2021-24.

Jincy went on to earn a silver medal with Team USA four years ago, and it’s been evident for quite some time that Joy would follow in her footsteps. Joy skated for Team USA at the 2023 World Under-18 Championships and joined the senior national team in 2024 at the World Championships, all while scoring the national championship-winning goal for the Buckeyes in 2024.

"It's an honor,” Dunne said. “I mean, you kind of run out of words when you're describing it because you don't know how to put it into words for something you've worked for at least 16 years of my life. Even when I was 4, I was competitive enough to where, if you explained it to me, I probably would have wanted it. It is truly an honor to represent your country and I don't take that for granted, and I'm just excited.”

As Muzerall has brought in more players from around the world in recent recruiting classes, it’s an opportunity for those athletes to shine on the world stage as well. Vanhanen will be skating in her second Olympics for Finland, while Jungåker, Raunio and Svensson will each be in their first Games.

"It's the biggest thing you can do as an athlete,” Jungåker said. “I'm super grateful to be part of Team Sweden and that we get to experience this together."

Interest in women’s hockey has grown the past few years, in part because of the establishment and growth of the PWHL. Now with eight franchises in its third season, the league has drawn huge crowds across the United States and Canada, and many of the OSU alums who are taking part in the Olympics are now deep into their pro careers.

That has spurred interest in more youngsters to play hockey, including in a city like Columbus, a burgeoning girls hockey market. Many of those girls have embraced and been embraced by Ohio State, which plays in the toughest conference in the nation and brings many of the current and future stars of the game to Columbus as part of its schedule every year.

The Minnesotas and Wisconsins of the world had a head start on Ohio State, but this year’s Olympic Games shows the Buckeyes have more than caught up. And if it’s up to Muzerall, things are just getting started.

“It shows how young our program is and what the future hopefully will look like because we have 12, and so do some other teams we play against, but those programs have been established for so many years,” Muzerall said. “To see how much we’ve grown over a short span of time, I think the future is a lot brighter for us, and we’re excited about that.”