By Jondi Gumz
The name of one of the Olympic swimming medalists is familiar to Aptos residents: Caspar Corbeau.
Caspar Corbeau celebrates his finish.
He won a bronze medal in the 200 meter breaststroke for the Netherlands.
Corbeau — Isn’t that the name of a top swimmer at Aptos High?
Yes indeed.
Both Jim Corbeau and his wife Shannon Hocum Corbeau were club swimmers on a top team producing national level swimmers.
Here he shares their swim history, the excitement of watching their 23-year-old son compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and his future plans:
Can you share a little of your Aptos swim history with our readers?
We both started swimming at the Cabrillo Threshers in the early 1970s as little kids. Our coaches at the time were Pete McLean and Jim Triplett.
After a few years we both moved to Santa Cruz Aquatic Team (SCAT), which at the time was one of the best clubs in Northern California, producing many national-level swimmers.
What year did you graduate? What year did your wife graduate?
I graduated in 1982 and Shannon in 1984.
Your son has an unusual first name. How did you pick that?
We wanted all of our kids to have “typical” European names (I’m Dutch and Shannon has European ancestry too). Caspar’s siblings are Angus and Nicolien.
And how you did you get Caspar started in the pool?
We started with water safety and “learn to swim” with the Jim Booth Swim School (also a former coach of ours!). We vacationed every summer at Tahoe and wanted all our kids to be comfortable around the water. When we moved to Oregon all three kids started on the local swim club.
What prompted your move to Oregon?
When we moved back to Aptos from Europe in 2000, we quickly found out it was not the same place we grew up in in the 1970s. We wanted a slower pace of life for us and our kids, and Oregon offered that.
What in Caspar’s training helped him qualify for the Olympics in the 200 meter breaststroke?
Caspar was always a very determined, self-motivated athlete and student, with a tremendous work ethic. Because of that, he’s also very coachable.
He had the good fortune to be coached by Christopher Pfaffenroth on his club in Oregon from 14-18 (CP is one of the best young coaches in the country), and then by one of the greatest coaches in history, Eddie Reese at the University of Texas.
After moving to Amsterdam in the summer of 2023 (after graduating at Texas), his coach there (Mark Faber, who coached Arno Kamminga to two silver medals in breaststroke in Tokyo Olympics, and Tes Schouten to a bronze in breaststroke in Paris) made some significant technique changes and dramatically improved his flexibility and agility.
He’s probably the best “glider” in the world – he swims very efficiently. He now has four years to get physically stronger before LA in 2028.
Were the two of you in Paris to see your son get the medal?
We were! We spent the entire week of swimming competition there.
How did you feel when he touched the wall?
It was a huge sense of joy for him, and a profound sense of happiness that he achieved something most little swimmers dream of, and that he had worked so hard for.
Earlier in the week he had a great 100 meter breaststroke swim in the prelims, and it looked like he might win a medal. But he changed his strategy for the final and it didn’t play out well. So medaling in the 200 was very satisfying.
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Here’s more about Jim Corbeau and his wife, Shannon Hocom Corbeau, and their athletic accomplishments at Aptos High School, courtesy of athletic director Travis Fox.
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Jim Corbeau
Aptos High Class of 1982
Jim was a two-sport athlete at Aptos High School, starring in both swimming and water-polo. He received several MVP awards in both sports, earned All-League honors in water polo, and competed at the varsity level in both sports all four years, earning eight varsity letters.
Jim and Shannon celebrate with their son, Caspar, after his bronze-medal win for the Netherlands.
Jim was the first Aptos swimmer to break the one-minute barrier in the 100-yard breaststroke. He was a multiple SCCAL champion, a CCS finalist as a junior and senior, and he was a high school All-American
In the summer of 1982, at the end of his senior year, competing for the Santa Cruz Aquatic Team, Jim was the USA Swimming Junior National Champion in the 100-meter breaststroke.
After high school, Jim attended the University of California Berkeley. At Cal, he was a four-year letterman in swimming, and competed at the NCAA National Championships as a junior and senior.
Jim is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Holland, and as a result, he swam for the Netherlands national team from 1983 to 1986. He is a former Dutch national record holder in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter breaststroke. Representing the Netherlands, he competed at the European Championships in Rome, Italy in 1983, and in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1985.
He was a finalist in the 100-meter breaststroke at the World University Games in Kobe, Japan, in 1985, and in 1986, he was a finalist in the 100-meter breaststroke at the U.S. World Championship trials.
In 1986, Jim graduated from Cal with a major in political science and a minor in economics. He worked as a graduate assistant for the Cal men’s swim team in 1987 and 1988. He then went on to earn his MBA in financial and international business from the University of Wisconsin. At Wisconsin, he was the assistant head coach for the women’s swim team in 1989 and 1990.
From 2001 to 2004, Jim came full circle, being named as an assistant coach with the Cabrillo Threshers club team in Aptos, where he had started swimming over 30 years before.
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Shannon Hocom
Aptos High Class of 1984
Shannon is one of the finest swimmers to ever come out of Santa Cruz County.
She was the SCCAL MVP all four years in high school. She still holds several school and league records, and in 1981, during her sophomore year, she represented the USA in a dual meet against the Soviet Union.
Shannon earned a scholarship in swimming at UCLA, where she received her teaching credential in special education.
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Jim was the presenter when Shannon became an inaugural member of the Aptos High Sports Hall of Fame. They have three children — Caspar, Angus and Nicolien — all of whom, no surprise, are swimmers, too.
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Photos courtesy of the Corbeau family.