As part of our FCN | European Sports Leadership & Coaching Network, we interviewed International Diving Coach Jane Figueirdo. Best known for coaching the British sporting superstar Tom Daley, who won Gold alongside partner Matty Lee at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Jane, who was born in Zimbabwe, has had an incredible coaching career, working in both the US and UK with equal success. Jane’s 24-year tenure at the University of Houston included 12 consecutive conference Diving Coach of the year honors, and four NCAA Diving Coach of the Year awards (2001, 2003, 2009, and 2010).
Her divers won multiple NCAA championships at Houston, including Anastasia Pozdniakova who won the 1-meter title in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. In total, her divers won 8 NCAA titles and 51 All-American honors in 24 seasons. (Source: SwimSwam.com) In 2014, Jane resigned from her position as Head Diving Coach at the University of Houston to take on the role over the new high performance diving center in London. Since then, she has guide Tom Daley a number of Olympic medals including bronze at London 2012, bronze at Rio 2016 and bronze and gold at Tokyo 2020.