Veronica Ribot-Canales completed her first year as diving coach at SUNY Cortland in 2021-22.
In her first season, Ribot-Canales led Cortland's female divers to first, second and fourth place on the 3-meter springboard and first, second and fifth-place finishes on the 1-meter springboard at the SUNYAC Championships. She was named the SUNYAC Women's Diving Coach of theYear and her top diver was named the SUNYAC Women's Diving Athlete of the Meet and the SUNYAC Women's Diver of the Year. On the men's side, her top diver earned a sixth-place finish on both boards, and Ribot-Canales was awarded, along with head swim coach Brian Tobin and assistant swim coach Corey Ryon, the SUNYAC Men's Co-Swimming and Diving Coaching Staff of the Year award.
Ribot-Canales went on to qualify four of Cortland's divers to the Region 4 (Northeast and South) Championships, hosted by Ithaca College. Her top female diver, Taylor Williams, gained a berth to the NCAA Division III Championships in Indianapolis, where she achieved All-America (top 8) status in the 3-meter springboard with a sixth-place national finish and honorable mention All-America honors in the 1-meter springboard with a 16th-place national showing. Williams' placings, as Cortland's sole NCAA qualifier, earned the Red Dragons a 29th-place national finish, the team's best national finish in more than 30 years.
Prior to her arrival at Cortland, Ribot-Canales taught yoga full time. One of the places she taught was at the Student Life Center in Cortland from 2017-20.
Ribot-Canales's first collegiate coaching position was head coach of diving at Cornell University in Ithaca from 2007-16. She was one of the only female coaches in the Ivy League during eight seasons. Her divers occupy most of Cornell's all-time top-10 list, and her top male diver was a double finalist and third-place finisher at the Ivy League Championships.
During her years at Cornell, she had several finalists at the Ivy League Championships. She trained seven of the men's all-time top-10 finishers on the 3-meter board, eight of 10 male divers on the 1-meter board, five of 10 women in 3-meter and four of 10 in 1-meter.
Before her appointment at Cornell, Ribot-Canales coached her own USA Diving Club team, Team Olympia, in Miami, Florida, competing in the Florida Gold Coast Diving Association during 1996-2007. Having an eye for talent, she acquired her best diver, Bianca Alvarez who began training with her at the age of 12, after leaving a gymnastics career at a high level. By age 16 she was an age group National Champion, many times regional winner, Florida State High School Champion, and the most highly recruited athlete to college. Bianca went on to compete at the 20212 Olympic trials in Federal Way, Washington.
Prior to the start of Ribot-Canales's coaching career, she was a 4-time Olympian representing her native Argentina. She was a 12-time South American Champion, a Pan American Silver & Bronze medalist on the 10-meter platform, a U.S. Olympic Festival Gold & Bronze medalist on springboard, and a 2-time U.S. National Champion on 3-meter springboard.
As an all-around diver, Veronica was the only woman at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games to make the finals (top 8) in both Olympic diving events (10-meter platform & 3-meter springboard). She was a 6-time U.S. National team member, having switched her sports nationality to represent the United States for the last three years of her career, and competed at the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis in 1996.
