The Team USA women’s hockey squad had a historic, gold medal-winning run at the Olympics in Milan, allowing only two goals in seven games. Meanwhile, St. Thomas women’s hockey had the most saves in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in the 2025-26 season with 946.
The woman behind both achievements? Alli Altmann, the goalie coach for both Team USA and UST women’s hockey.
Altmann joined the senior national team staff following the 2022 Winter Olympics. Over the past four years, she has been part of the coaching staff leading up to the 2026 Olympics, where the United States won gold behind a dominant defensive performance.
“In 2016, I started my journey with the U-18 U.S. program,” Altmann said. “I coached four world championships with the under-18 level, and then fast-forward to 2022, finally got my opportunity to work with the big squad.”
At the 2026 Olympics, Team USA’s defense proved nearly impenetrable, surrendering two goals across seven games. Team USA goaltender Aerin Frankel had a .980 save percentage throughout the competition, saving 97 shots while allowing only two goals.
Altmann joined St. Thomas during the 2025-26 season and coached the Tommies to the most saves in the WCHA in the 2025-26 season.
Altmann said that goaltending is “this individual sport within a team game with a unique job description.”
“For the whole goalie core, led by Aerin Frankel, to only allow two goals in the whole tournament is unheard of,” Altmann said. “It makes me super proud as a coach to just be a part of their journey and help keep them in their tip-top shape moving through the tournament.”
Before St. Thomas traveled to Ohio State for postseason play on Feb. 27, Altmann said coach Bethany Brausen asked her to share insight from her Olympic experience.
“The playoffs is a brand-new season in itself,” Altmann said. “Just like our U.S. squad, we crushed teams, but once playoffs started, it’s a whole different season. I just wanted to reiterate that message with our St. Thomas team to inspire them moving into that series.”
While Altmann celebrated gold with Team USA, former Tommie and current Switzerland defender Nicole Vallario also won her own Olympic medal.
Vallario played for the Tommies from 2021-25 and won the bronze medal with Switzerland at the 2026 Olympics in Milan.
Vallario finished her St. Thomas career with 14 goals and 22 assists.
In Beijing in 2022, Vallario competed in her first Olympics, where she finished fourth with Switzerland and tallied an assist. Four years later, she returned to the Olympic stage playing for Switzerland’s first line and won the bronze medal, beating Sweden 2-1 in overtime.
“It’s just an honor to be able to represent my country and be able to represent the school,” Vallario said. “I never thought I would go to the Olympics twice and come back with a medal the second time.”
The WCHA was represented well at the 2026 Olympics, according to its website. Twenty players currently in the WCHA competed in the Olympics for countries including the United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Czechia and Germany.
Eleven WCHA staff members also participated in the 2026 Olympics, including Altmann.
After coaching at Minnesota State University in 2024-25 and St. Catherine University from 2014-24, Altmann said she has already found a community she wants to grow with.
“It’s such a young community,” Altmann said. “It’s rewarding being a part of the ground roots that’ll help that grow into bigger and better things. The staff and the girls and everyone is so welcoming. I think every person that’s been around and I’ve met through St. Thomas is just an awesome person. And I hope we can bring that into the culture of our team.”
Vallario said the high-level competition in the WCHA helped prepare her for the international stage.
“The physicality and the speed of the game, especially in the WCHA, is really good hockey,” Vallario said. “Playing in it is a really good way to adapt to the speed of the game and get better every single day. A lot of national team players are from the WCHA, so it’s good to play against them all year round.”
Before the Olympics, Vallario joined the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Vallario signed with the New York Sirens during the 2025-26 season and scored in her first game with the team.
Vallario called being able to play in the PWHL “the good life.”
“This isn’t possible from where I’m from, or Europe in general,” Vallario said. “It is in the USA or Canada, so I love being able to play hockey every day and think hockey, stay with these girls and get better every day.”
Reagan Boschulte can be reached at bosc3829@stthomas.edu.
