SERGIO LOPEZ MIRO

HEAD COACH

Sergio Lopez Miro, four-time Olympic Coach, two-time Olympian and 1988 bronze medal winner, was named the Director of Virginia Tech Swimming & Diving in May of 2018 by Director of Athletics Whit Babcock.

Since Lopez Miro took the helm, the Hokies have seen a quick rise in the national rankings. In 2023 Lopez Miro led the men’s team to their highest NCAA finish in program history.  Lopez Miro was named the men's VaSID Coach of the Year.  The men placed ninth with 133 points, and Ramadan became the program's first-ever NCAA Champion. They accumulated a total of six All-American honors and four honorable mentions. The women’s team also added an All-American during the 2022 season.  Earlier in the season, the men made their highest ACC finish since 2014, placing second with 1008 points and earning 11 medals.

The 2020-21 season was a breakout season for both the men's and women’s teams. On the men’s side, the Hokies recorded an 11th place finish at NCAA Championships; the highest finish in school history combined with the most points scored in school history (135). The Hokies followed that up with another 11th-place finish in 2022, breaking the record with 143 points from the men.

The women finished 21st in 2021,  with the 2nd highest finish in school history, scoring the most points in school history (55). Through these performances, the Hokies earned 15 All-American Honors.

The Hokies also made a splash at the 2021 ACC Championship meet where Youssef Ramadan was named ACC Freshman of the Year (20-21). Youssef also became the fastest freshman in NCAA History with his performance in the 100 Butterfly (44.32).
Since taking over the program in 2018, the Hokies have seen 39 school records, 34 All-American performers and an ACC Champion. Lopez Miro’s Hokies have rewritten the all-time top-10 list with the men’s team producing 178 top-10 performances, while the women’s team has produced an impressive 121 Top-10 performances.

His program has also excelled in the classroom. For the past three seasons, both the men’s and women’s teams were named CSCAA Scholar All-American Teams. Forty-eight Hokies have been named CSCAA Scholar All-Americans; and 20 to the All-ACC Academic Team.

Lopez Miro sent 16 Hokies to the 2020 Olympic Trials. While the Hokies had a strong showing at trials, it was highlighted by AJ Pouch’s performance in the 200 Breaststroke with a fifth-place finish, as well as Blake Manoff’s semi-final appearance in the 100 Fly.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics saw eight athletes coached under Lopez Miro heading into the games. Highlighted by current Hokie Youssef Ramadan placing 16th overall in the 100m Butterfly with an Egyptian national record time of 51.67. Another notable performance was that of Santo Condorelli winning a silver medal in the 400 Free Relay.

Lopez Miro joined the Hokies after spending the two seasons as the associate head coach at Auburn University, following a two-year stint as the head high performance coach of the Singapore Swimming Association.

Prior to joining the Hokies, Lopez Miro had head coaching experience at West Virginia from 2004-07, where he was a two-time Big East Men's Coach of the Year. During the 2006-07 season, the Mountaineers went  undefeated with a regular season record of 13-0.

Following his stint at WVU, Lopez led the prestigious Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida from 2007-14. During his tenure, he led both the boys' and girls' teams to state titles and his teams held five of the 11 independent school national high school records. In addition, the boys team claimed four national titles, while the girls finished as runners-up twice. His list of notable pupils while at Bolles includes Olympic gold medalists and NCAA champions Ryan Murphy and Joseph Schooling.

While working with the Singapore Swimming Association, Lopez Miro created and coached at the National Training Center, where he worked with 33 of the best swimmers in the country. He developed and coached the first Olympic gold medalist, Schooling, in Singapore's history. He is a three-time Olympic team coach, serving as the head coach for Singapore at the 2016 Rio games and as an assistant in 2012 for the London games. In addition, Lopez Miro was the head coach for Netherlands Antilles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Barcelona, Spain native was a member of the Spanish national team from 1984-96. He won a silver medal at the 1993 World Championships and has held European and U.S. Open records as well as 14 records in Spain. Lopez Miro claimed a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics in the 200 breaststroke.
Lopez Miro began his coaching career as a volunteer at Arizona from 1994-96. From 1996-97 he was the technical director at the Cantabric Swimming Federation in Santander, Spain before returning to the U.S. to serve as the head coach at Hillenbrand Aquatics in Tucson, Arizona.

He returned to the college ranks to serve as an assistant (2000-03) coach at Northwestern before being promoted to associate head coach in 2003. While there, he helped the Wildcats produce seven All-Americans, eight Big Ten champions, a Big Ten Swimmer of the Year and a Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

Lopez graduated from American University in 1992 with a degree in Kinesiology. During his collegiate career, Lopez Miro earned nine All-American honors in the breaststroke and IM events.