Arnautoff was selected for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but did not get to play any games due to the United States boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. The Moscow Games were the first to be held in Eastern Europe and were boycotted by the US and a number of other countries in reaction to the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan the year prior.
Victor Arnautoff, Russian-American painter and professor of art, is Peter's grandfather.