Hall Of Fame Bio

Ron O’Brien is a renown diving coach who spent the greater part of his life coaching elite divers. Before coaching, O’Brien was both a competitive diver and gymnast. Attending the Ohio State University, he earned six varsity letters in gymnastics and diving. While competing in diving for the Buckeyes, O’Brien won the 1959 NCAA National Championship on the one-meter springboard and 1961 Amateur Athletic Union national championship on the three-meter springboard. After his diving career, O’Brien served as a coach for the U.S. Olympic diving team at eight straight Olympic Games, between 1968 and 1996. In his 34 years of coaching, his divers won 196 gold, 113 silver and 106 bronze medals in major Olympic, world, national, NCAA and Big Ten Conference diving championships. He produced a U.S. national champion and has coached a national champion in 24 consecutive years. Under O’Brien’s coaching, the United States swept all four gold medals at the 1984 world championships, the first time any country has swept a major international world-class event since 1952. In 1986, all 12 U.S. diving individual national titles were won by O’Brien divers. Two years later at the 1988 Olympic Games, he coached Greg Louganis to his second double gold medal performance in the springboard and platform events, making Greg the only man to accomplish back-to-back gold medals in Olympic diving history. Inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, O’Brien left an incredible legacy in the sport of diving.

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