Kongrong Li joined the St. Bonaventure men's and women's swim and dive coaching staff in September 2026, taking over direction of the Bonnies divers as diving head coach.
Li, who goes by the nickname KR, brings an impressive background to working with Bonnies divers.
The California native most recently worked at James Madison, where he worked with the 2024 and 2025 Sun Belt Conference women’s champions. He was named Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) Diving Coach of the Year in 2023 during his tenure at JMU as well. Li also has prior experience at Miami (OH), Illinois and time spent with USA Diving.
Li spent 13 years at Miami (OH) as the head diving coach for both the men’s and women’s programs. During his time in Ohio, the RedHawks saw individual success at both the national and conference level. At the national level, Miami (OH) had seven All-American selections and three second place finishes at the NCAA National Championships. His divers also won 10 MAC Diver of the Year awards and he was named the MAC Diving Coach of the Year in four separate seasons.
He has logged nearly three decades of international coaching experience. He worked as USA Diving Junior Head Coach consultant, assigning coaches with training plans and programs, and was the assistant team leader for Team USA at the 2014 FINA Diving World Cup and team leader in 2018.
His international coaching work also includes serving as co-head coach of the US Elite Diving Academy from 2001-07 and head coach of Team USA at the 2004 Junior World Championships. Before working with Team USA, he spent six years (1996-2001) as the diving coach at Australia Institute of Sports, the country’s elite diving program. While working at AIS, he coached seven Olympians including Matthew Mitcham who won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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Li’s coaching career began with the Nanning Diving Team in Guanxi, China where he served as the head coach from 1990-95.
