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Notre Dame to honor longtime dive coach Caiming Xie

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Prior to the Friday night session of Notre Dame’s 2023 Tim Welsh Classic, the Irish program will recognize one of its finest. 

On Friday, former Notre Dame dive coach Caiming Xie will return to South Bend to celebrate his 2020 retirement. The ceremony had previously been postponed for COVID and other reasons but will take place Friday evening around 4:45 p.m. 

Caiming was the leader of the Irish dive program from August 1995 to June 2020 and was named the Big East Coach of the Year 10 times. He coached seven All-Americans, and his divers brought home a total of 14 Big East titles. 

Two divers — Joe Coumas and Kelly Straub — qualified for Olympic Trials under his watch. Coumas was a 2017 ACC champion. 

Before coming to Notre Dame, Caiming was the head diving coach for three years at Toledo, earning Mid-American Conference Diving Coach of the Year laurels in each of his last two seasons. Prior to his stint with the Rockets, Caiming was an assistant coach for the 1991-92 season at Pittsburgh.

Boasting a wealth of international experience on his résumé, Caiming served as the 1980 Chinese Olympic diving coach. He has been a technical consultant for United States Diving since 1994 and has held clinics and presentations for the United States Diving national team.

In 2010 and again in 2012, Caiming was a USA Diving National Team leader and coach at the FINA/NVC Diving World Series.

Caiming also helped coach a United States squad that claimed six medals at the 2009 World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia and again coached at the 2011 World University Games in Shenzhen, China.

The Chinese national team coach from 1977-90, Caiming coached Sun Shu-Wei, a gold medalist in the men’s platform competition at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and Zhu Jin- Hong, who finished fourth in the women’s platform in Barcelona. Caiming’s divers also have earned medals at the Asian Games, World Cup, World University Games, and World Championships.

A competitive diver in his own right, Caiming won the springboard competition at the Asian Games in 1974 and earned first place in the platform and second in the springboard competition at the National Games of China in 1975.

A 1985 graduate of the Beijing Institute of Physical Education, he also won numerous Chinese diving championships on the national level. Caiming and his wife, Ping Tong, have one son, Tong, who graduated from Notre Dame in 2003 after a successful career as an Irish diver.

All-Americans Coached: Heather Mattingly, Meghan Perry-Eaton, Jennifer Chiang, Allison Casareto, Kelly Straub, Michael Bulfin and Joseph Coumas

Conference Champions Coached: Jennifer Chiang (four-time); Natalie Stitt (three-time); Wes Villafor and Nick Nemetz (two-time); Allison Casareto, Eric Lex, Joe Coumas and Nathan Geary (one-time)

The Tim Welsh Classic will begin at 10 a.m. on Friday with the second session beginning at 5 p.m. The meet will conclude Saturday morning at 11 a.m.