Aaron Shackell, Caspar Corbeau Kick Off Olympic Games for the Longhorns

Two Longhorn swimmers started their Olympic journey in the first day of the tournament.

Aaron Shackell slaps the water after winning a 200-meter freestyle semifinals swim-off Sunday, June 16, 2024, during the second day of competition for the U.S. Olympic Team Swimming Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY

The Olympic opening ceremony took over the Seine River in Paris and in the early hours of July 27, two Longhorns kicked off the games for Texas in the swimming pools.

Incoming Texas transfer from California Aaron Shackell was the first member of the U.S. swimming team to qualify for the Olympics. After a brief time with the Golden Bears, Shackell returned to his hometown of Carmel to practice for the Paris qualifiers before going back to collegiate swimming in the fall.

Shackell competed in the 400-meter freestyle in heat four and qualified in third place with a time of 3:45.45.

Texas graduate Caspar Corbeau had already represented the Netherlands in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and started his second round as an Olympian as well as he could.

In the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, Corbeau lead heat three with a time of 59.04.

The top three athletes of each heat advance to the semi-finals, and as the first-place winner of his heat, Corbeau will be competing in the next round in the Parisian evening at 2:15 p.m. CT. After the final, Corbeau will compete in the 200-meter breaststroke on Tuesday.

For Shackell’s category, the top three of each heat go straight to the final later today at 1:42 p.m. CT. Shackell qualified sixth overall.

Also for the Longhorns in the first day of the competition will be Wimbledon star Lulu Sun competing for New Zealand with Erin Routliffe in the women’s tennis doubles against the Italian duo of Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani.