Fernando J. Canales (born November 2, 1959 in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) is a former freestyle swimmer from Puerto Rico and swimming coach. Up until the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he was the head assistant coach for men's swimming & diving at his alma mater, The University of Michigan, and also for the USA National Championship Team, Club Wolverine, home for numerous Olympic champions and medalists. He is a member of the USA Swimming's International Relations Committee as well as the United States' technical representative for the Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas (ASUA/UANA). He is an assistant director of development for The University of Michigan Athletic Department. He then was the head coach at Colgate University. In his first season at Colgate, the women's team took home the 2011 Patriot League Championship, and the men's team finished the meet in fifth place. In 2016 he coached his home country Puerto Rico at the Olympics in Rio. Currently he is the head coach for Pitchfork Aquatics and Puerto Rico. His father is Francisco Canales Roman, from Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, and his mother is Carmen Alvarez Canales, from Mexico City D.F. Fernando has two brothers (swimmer Francisco—Harvard '78 and Stanford '82; Harry Noel—Michigan '87) and one sister (Sandra Lee—CMU '88 & Grand Valley State '89). He graduated from Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola (San Juan) in 1977 and was honored for civic service and athletic achievements with the symbolic key to the City of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, in 1978. He graduated in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in physiology of exercise and a Bachelor of Arts in history and English from the University of Michigan. After his graduation he worked with legendary Olympic coaches Jon Urbanchek and Dick Kimball from 1982 to 1987 and helped the Wolverines reclaim the Big Ten Championship Title after a 24-year drought in March 1986. Canales was the head swimming and water polo coach at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 1990 to 1992, where he also taught classes within the Physical Education Department. He became a national swimming champion at an early age by becoming the top-ranked 17 and under, 100 meter freestyler in the US in 1977 while training under Coach Brad Glenn in Huntsville, Alabama. Canales was ranked 25th in the world that very same year in the 100 Free. His triumphs brought him to the University of Michigan from 1977