A trio of Santa Cruz County Olympians shined on the big stage during the first week of action at the 2024 Paris Games.
Santa Cruz resident Haley Batten (mountain biking) and Aptos native Caspar Corbeau (swimming) are bringing home a silver and bronze medal, respectively, while Santa Cruz resident Kelsey Robinson Cook continues her journey to defend the gold in women’s volleyball.
Others remaining to compete include Aptos’ Nikki Hiltz (track), Santa Cruz’s Natalia Grossman (sports climbing) and Scotts Valley’s Dom Parrish (wrestling).
Haley Batten (Santa Cruz), USA, women’s mountain biking: The 25-year-old Santa Cruz resident on July 28 became the first American to capture a silver medal in mountain biking.
“Nothing like this feeling,” Batten said on her Instagram account. “I’m still taking it all in.”
Batten crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 28 minutes, 59 seconds, just slightly ahead of Jenny Rissveds of Sweden (1:29:04). Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France won the race on her home turf in 1:26:02.
According to the Associated Press, Batten was fined 500 Swiss francs, or about $565, by the Olympic mountain bike judges for breaking a rule on the final lap of her race on Sunday,
The broken rule was “failure to respect the instructions of the race organization or commissaires.” Batten went through a lane dedicated for taking on food and drink or stopping for mechanical problems. She did neither one.
The AP also reported Batten punctured a tire but luckily she was nearby a U.S. mechanics team that rapidly changed it, giving her a chance to storm back for second place.
Prior to Sunday’s race, she was forced to miss last year’s national championships and UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland due to a concussion she suffered after flying over the handlebars during a training run.
Batten placed ninth three years ago at the Tokyo Games. On Sunday, she redeemed herself by surpassing bronze medal winners Susan DeMattei (1996) and Georgia Gould (2012).
Caspar Corbeau (Aptos), Netherlands 200 breaststroke: The 23-year old Aptos native won the bronze medal in 2 minutes, 7.90 seconds. Corbeau, who competed at the University of Texas, finished behind Australian Zac Stubblety-Cook (2:06.79) in second and the champion Leon Marchand (2:05.85) of France.
“Today, I am proud to say that I’m an Olympic medalist,” Corbeau said on his Instagram account.
Kelsey Robinson Cook, U.S. women’s volleyball: The 32-year old Santa Cruz resident had six digs to help lift the American national team to victory in five sets (25-17, 25-20, 20-25, 14-25, 17-15) over Serbia in Pool A play July 31.
The defending Olympic champion Americans currently own a 1-1 overall record, and sit in third place with three points in the Pool A standings behind Serbia (1-1; 4 points) and leaders China (2-0; 5 points).
Robinson Cook and her teammates will attempt to keep their medal hopes alive against host France (0-2; zero points) on Sunday at 4am.
The top two teams from pools A, B and C along with the two best third place finishers advance to the quarterfinals. Teams that win group-stage matches in three or four sets receive three points, and teams that win matches in five sets receive two points while the losing team receives one point.
The U.S. lost in a five-set thriller to China in the teams’ Pool A opening match on July 29. Despite the loss, the Americans still received one point.
Robinson Cook, originally from Bartlett, Ill., won a gold medal with the U.S. at the 2020 Tokyo Games and bronze at the 2016 Rio Games. She spent most of her professional career out of the country in places such as China, Puerto Rico, Italy and Turkey.
Prior to that, she played three years at the University of Tennessee before transferring to the University of Nebraska. Her ties to Santa Cruz came when she married Brian Cook, a former Soquel High star on the boys’ volleyball team. Robinson Cook recently launched her own clothing line called By the Sun.
Nikki Hiltz (Aptos), USA, women’s 1,500-meters: The former Aptos High star and 2012 California Interscholastic Federation State champion in the 1,600-meters will make their Olympic debut on Aug. 6 at 1:05am. They secured a spot in Paris after winning the 1500 finals in a record-setting performance in the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials on June 30.
Natalia Grossman (Santa Cruz), USA, sports climbing: Grossman will compete in her first Olympics on Aug. 6 at 1am. The 23-year old Santa Cruz native qualified after winning Gold at the Pan American Santiago in Oct. 2023. She also won gold at the 2021 World Championships.
Dom Parrish (Scotts Valley), USA, women’s wrestling (53kg): The former Scotts Valley High star and two-time CIF Wrestling champion (2014-’15) is set to compete in her first ever Olympics on Aug. 7 at 2am. Parrish defeated 2016 Olympian Haley Augello at the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team Trials in State College, Penn., on April 20.
2024 Olympic medalist
Silver
Haley Batten (Santa Cruz), USA, women’s mountain biking
Bronze
Caspar Corbeau (Aptos), Netherlands, 200 meter breaststroke
