Men's Gymnastics
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Phone:
- 615-1527
Yuan Xiao is in his 21st season with the Wolverine coaching staff and entering his fifth season as head coach in 2026. As the program’s fifth head coach, Xiao has guided Michigan to capture the 2025 NCAA National Championship, a fourth NCAA team title for the university, and the seventh of his collegiate coaching career across two institutions. Michigan also secured its fifth consecutive Big Ten Tournament title during his tenure.
Before Michigan, Xiao coached multiple Olympians and world champions in China, including Olympic all-around champion Yong Wei and Xing Aowei, who won team gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He also coached Fan Hongbin, a rings finalist at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and played a key role in China’s gold-medal teams at the 1994, 1995, and 1998 World Championships.
His career in the United States began at the University of Oklahoma, where Xiao spent five years contributing to NCAA team titles in 2002, 2003, and 2005, as well as runner-up finishes in 2001 and 2004.
Xiao then moved to Michigan, where he was an Assistant Coach to Kurt Golder from 2006 to 2021. In 2010, he guided Chris Cameron to Michigan’s first NCAA all-around title since 1963, followed by NCAA All-around champion Sam Mikulak in 2011, 2013, and 2014. Alongside Golder, Xiao helped Mikulak.
He then became the Wolverines’ Head Coach in 2022 and has mentored several standout athletes, including All-Around Champions Fred Richard (2023, 2025) and Paul Juda (2022). As head coach for four years, he has guided eight NCAA individual event champions, eight Big Ten individual event champions, and 47 All-American honors. For his leadership, Xiao was named 2025 NCAA Coach of the Year and the Big Ten Coach of the Year for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Xiao’s mentorship extends to the international stage. His involvement in world gymnastics spans decades, having coached at the 2009 and 2011 World Championships, the 2010 World
Championships in Rotterdam, and the 2013 World University Games in Kazan, Russia. He has also coached internationally for Ireland, guiding Rohan Sebastian at multiple events. In 2020,
Xiao guided Juda and Bock to a team gold medal at the Pan American Championships in Rio, with Juda also securing an individual Olympic berth. Xiao’s international résumé also includes
serving as head coach of Team USA at the 2023 World University Games in Chengdu, China, where the team earned a historic fourth-place finish, led by standout performances from Richard and Landen Blixt. In 2023, Xiao coached Richard and Juda, which helped Team USA earn its first World Championships team medal since 2014, winning bronze. Richard also made history as the youngest gymnast in U.S. history to claim a World all-around bronze.
His international career also includes several appearances at the Olympic Games. He guided 2004 U.S. Olympic silver medalist Guard Young and 2021 Tokyo Olympic reserve Cameron Bock. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Xiao coached Paul Juda and Fred Richard, who helped lead Team USA to a bronze medal in the team finals—the first medal for U.S. men’s gymnastics since 2008. Juda and Richard placed 13th and 14th, respectively, in the same Olympic all-around finals. In 2025, his contributions were nationally recognized when he was named USA Gymnastics Coach of the Year.
Beyond his coaching accomplishments, Xiao earned a bachelor’s degree in sports education from Beijing Sport University in 1988 and has been a featured lecturer at the USA Gymnastics National Congress since 1998. Outside the gym, he shares his life with his wife, Julia, a former Cirque du Soleil performer, and their daughters—Pearl, a proud University of Michigan graduate, and Sophia, a student at Michigan State University.
