Wenbo Chen

Biography

The Golden Gophers have one of the most respected and accomplished diving coaches in the world in Wenbo Chen, who will be in his 16th season with the program in 2024-25. Following four years as USA Diving’s head coach, he joined Minnesota’s staff on April 16, 2009. Chen has been named the Big Ten Women’s Diving Coach of the Year nine times in his career, and was also named the Men’s Diving Coach of the Year in 2016. He has coached four national champions, multiple CSCAA and Big Ten Divers of the Year and Olympic medalists. NCAA SUCCESS Vivi Del Angel became the most recent success story under Chen, winning Minnesota's first ever National Championship on the women's platform in 2024. Her teammate, freshman Elna Widerstrom, also found success at the 2024 NCAA Championships, placing sixth in the 1-meter to earn All-American recognition. On the men's side in 2024, freshman YuTong Wang became an All-American in both of his events after placing eighth in both the 1-meter and the 3-meter at the NCAA Championships. Sarah Bacon, the University of Minnesota's winningest woman in any sport, was a five-time NCAA Champion under the tutelage of Chen. Her first title came in the 1-meter at the 2018 NCAA Championships. She then went on to win three titles in the next two years, claiming gold in the one-meter at the 2019 NCAA Championships and gold both springboard events at the 2021 NCAA Championships. She repeated on the 3-meter in 2022, while her three-peat in the one-meter is something on