Hiea-Yoon Kang has been appointed head coach of Greece’s senior artistic swimming national team, the Hellenic Swimming Federation (KOE) announced Thursday. She succeeds Meng Chen, who had held the position since October 2024.

Kang takes over the senior team after leading Greece’s junior national team during the 2025 and 2026 seasons. Under her leadership, Greece won two bronze medals at the 2025 European Junior Championships, and notably finished fourth in both the technical team and free team events at the 2026 World Junior Championships.

 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Kang brings over two decades of experience in the United States, where she coached national teams across the junior, youth and 12-and-under categories from 2011 to 2021. From 2021 to 2022, she was also head coach of the UCLA artistic swimming collegiate team.

She then worked with the U.S. senior national team throughout the 2023 season, and was officially reappointed as an assistant coach in January 2024, ahead of the World Championships in Doha. In May 2024, USA Artistic Swimming indefinitely suspended Kang from her national team coaching role.

At club level, she founded the Long Beach Aquabelles in 2006 before relocating the program to La Mirada, California, the following year, where it became known as the La Mirada Aquabelles. The club, recently renamed the Golden State Aquabelles, became one of the leading artistic swimming programs in the country.

Kang will be joined by Ifigenia Dipla, a former national team member who has since transitioned into coaching. Dipla was already working with the junior national team in 2026.

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

Cover photo: Hellenic Swimming Federation

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