Dive into Jian Li You’s life, career, and journey

By Emily Hodge

When we take an inside look at the University of Nevada, Reno’s dive coach Jian Li You, we see that her life consisted of diving since she was a little girl.

When You was eight years old, she was taken from her family and her hometown of Shanghai, China and put into a dorm with other kids. This was very common in China if they saw potential for a world class athlete. This would become her life for the next 48 years. Both diving and coaching.

With the intense rigor of the gymnastics program, You was only permitted to see her parents once a week. Because athletics takes precedent for some, education was pushed aside for athletes to leave more time for training. As the training’s got more intense, You began to see her family less and less. By age 11, she only got to see her family once per month. By age 13, You made it onto the national diving team and only got to see her family once per year. Her feeling for diving were very clear.

“Diving was a job. It wasn’t fun. America is more fun and China is hard. It takes up more time and it’s a tougher competition,” You states.

Tara Wise, 16, is a diver in Las Vegas, Nevada. She’s on two dive teams and trains hard. She has nothing but love for the sport.

“Diving is such a thrilling sport, I love it. Not only is the rush exciting but being around others who have similar goals has allowed for a lot of self improvement,” Tara said.

In China, diving is a coveted thing. Nothing compares to it. China has won many diving medals during a lot of the Olympics because they know that is one sport they dominate at. Dive coaches are more special than doctors there. People who dive are looked up to like gods. It’s quite different from anywhere else.

Between 1976 and 1980, You won many awards. Some of which included, six Chinese national championships on the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform. You was ranked number one in the world on the 1- meter in 1980 during the Olympic season. Unfortunately, she would never go to the olympics due to the boycott of the Summer Games in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. After that, You would retire from diving.

Because diving was You’s life, she wasn’t done with it quite yet. Even though she wasn’t the one diving, she could still coach. Her decision to come to America was for what she has known her entire life. She wanted to help others with their skill and watch as divers improved. She has a love for this sport and wanted to share that love.

“Coming to America was for diving. [Also] It was for coaching”

After coaching for almost a decade in China, You moved and jump started her long career in America. In 1995 she landed a coaching job for the US team. From there, Nevada recruited her to coach for the University of Nevada, Reno. She instantly fell in love with Reno and the school.

“In 1996 they [Nevada] recruited me” You Said.

When asked if she was looking at any other schools she simply stated, “No, I was a US diving coach and that’s all”.

You has been Nevada’s dive coach since 1996 and loves it. When she came to America, it allowed diving to be fun again for her. It wasn’t just a grooling job like it was back in China. You said she would never go somewhere else because she loves Reno so much. During the 20 years You has been here, she’s coached many individual conference champions. This is including Lang Rao, who finished second in the NCAA 1-meter championship in 1999. You has also been named the conference coach of the year four times.

Because of the way You was coached in China, she doesn’t want to be like that. The divers were scared of their coaches and never really connected with them. You wants to let the divers be themselves and build a relationship of trust. This could have an impact on how well divers do. She does push them too. After all it’s where she came from and how she was coached.

Chih-Cheng Wu, 16, is also from Las Vegas, Nevada. He spoke about how the help coaches and the relationship between the coach and the pupil.

“I like diving because I love the coaches,” Chih-Cheng Wu said. “They help me and boost me up when I am down.”

You is looking forward to this year’s Olympics because she has a diver going to the Olympic trials.

“I have one diver that I’ve been working with, Krysta Palmer.”

They are set to go to the Olympic trials in Indianapolis this summer in June. This 23 year old has come so far under Jian Li You’s coaching. The excitement is noticeable. With the training that Palmer does under You, this will will hopefully be a good run for her.