Indeed, while the Summer Games are often fed by athletic powerhouses like Auburn, Florida and Southern California, the Winter Games draw from a more eclectic group, including small colleges like Utah Valley, Alaska Pacific and the Community College of Rhode Island. The leading Olympic feeder this year is Westminster College, a four-year liberal-arts college in Salt Lake City, which counts 3,100 students — and more than 20 Olympians.

DeVry, which claims about 60,000 students on more than 90 campuses and unknown numbers of laptops, is by far the Olympics’ most prominent for-profit university. Such institutions have been the subject of criticism for a raft of issues, including high tuitions, low graduation rates and overly aggressive marketing.

Robert Shireman, a former deputy undersecretary of the Department of Education, said that for-profit institutions were under fire from some quarters because nearly 90 percent of their students receive student loans.

“There are worries that the federal dollars are driving the schools to serve students that cannot benefit and make promises that they cannot keep,” Shireman said. “I’m sure there are people that benefit enormously from the degrees they get at for-profit institutions. But the problem is the large number of people that come out with big debt and no job.”

Image The bobsledder and DeVry student Steven Holcomb celebrating a World Cup win on Saturday. Credit... Tobias Hase/European Pressphoto Agency

DeVry’s parent company has been the subject of recent investigations by two states — Illinois and Massachusetts — according to an April filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At that time, the company said the inquiries — dealing with compensation practices and false claims — were being met with “a view toward transparency and an interest in demonstrating the compliant nature of its practices.” The company said Tuesday that it cooperated with the inquiries and had heard nothing further.

As for the Olympics, the university’s president, David J. Pauldine, said his institution was proud to be supporting the futures of the athletes in sports like bobsled — which has four DeVryians heading to the Olympics — and luge, which has six.