Tes Schouten & Caspar Corbeau To Reunite With Coach Mark Faber As They Relocate To Antwerp
Olympic bronze medallist Tes Schouten is to relocate to Antwerp, Belgium, where she will reunite with former coach Mark Faber with whom she worked for eight years.
It comes after Caspar Corbeau, who won 200m breaststroke bronze at Paris 2024, announced last week that he would be joining up with Faber who was appointed Belgium head coach in November last year.
Schouten and Corbeau trained under Faber in Amsterdam alongside double Olympic silver medallist Arno Kamminga and Kenzo Simons, four-time world short-course medallist.
Kamminga announced in May that he was moving to Hong Kong where he’d be coached by Tom Rushton meaning that three of the quartet plus Faber have now relocated their training bases away from the Dutch federation.
Schouten was third in the 200m breaststroke at Paris 2024 behind Kate Douglass and Tatjana Smith which followed gold in a Dutch record of 2:19.81 and silver over 100m behind Tang Qianting at the Doha World Championships.
However, in September last year she began to experience nerve pain on the left side of her face which lasted for two to three weeks before she was hospitalised for 11 days in November with nerve pain, loss of power and function on the entire left side of her body. In April Schouten announced she wouldn’t be competing at the World Championships that start a week on Sunday in Singapore.
Schouten revealed on Tuesday that she’d be moving to Antwerp in the European autumn to work with Faber. Along with Corbeau, training mates will include Roos Vanotterdijk, who won a medal of each colour at last year’s European Championships, and Florine Gaspard, who set the 24.42 Belgian 50 free record in April.
She posted to social media, saying: “I am very excited to announce that i’ll move to Antwerp this fall to continue training with my coach Mark Faber again. After having worked together for the 8 years, I know this is the best decision for me as an athlete and as a person. Im feeling confident and happy with this ‘new’ but familiar start in Belgium 🇧🇪🏊♀️
“Health is doing better, but there’s still many challenges ahead of me. Im buzzing with excitement to start my swimming career again after a tough year. Let’s see what the future holds 😋☺️🧡
#TeamNL #swimming #olympics”
Corbeau spoke last week of the “easy decision” he’d made to join Faber, saying: “Thanks Amsterdam ❤️
“Time for a change. After lots of thought, the decision became easy. I am proud to announce that I will be joining my former coach Mark Faber in Antwerp, Belgium on the road to The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games!”
Corbeau and Schouten won the Netherlands’ two medals in the pool at La Defense Arena last year while Sharon van Rouwendaal took the women’s 10k title.
Corbeau won silver behind Dong Zhihao at the 2024 worlds in Doha and swam the prelims of the men’s medley relay before being replaced by Kamminga in the final where the Netherlands quartet finished second in a 3:31.23 national record behind the USA. Months later, he finished behind Leon Marchand – and his 2:05.85 European record – and Australian Zac Stubblety-Cook with Corbeau clocking 2:07.90.
The 24-year-old will travel to Singapore for the upcoming World Championships with a 2025 best of 2:08.21 from the AP International n May. Shin Ohashi, the 16-year-old who set a WJR of 2:07.27, tops the rankings but won’t be at worlds with Corbeau sixth in the standings and with Stubblety-Cook withdrawing through injury.
While Corbeau and Schouten head to Belgium, Kamminga was the first of the former Amsterdam quartet who worked with Faber to head to foreign shores.
He was the second man to go through the 58-sec barrier in the 100 breast when he went 57.90 at the Netherlands Team Time Trials in April 2021 before going on to post 57.80 in prelims in Tokyo. Only Adam Peaty – with his 56.88 WR – and Qin Haiyang (57.69) have gone quicker than Kamminga. He was also the fourth man to break 2:07 over 200m when he went 2:06.85 in Rotterdam in December 2020.
The 29-year-old finished sixth in 59.32 at Paris 2024 in the 100m and then withdrew from the 200 after finishing 12th in prelims.
He took eight months away from the pool when he travelled extensively but has now made the switch to Hong Kong to be coached by Rushton, who also oversees four-time Olympic medallist Siobhan Haughey and has previously played a part with Sarah Sjöström, Mary-Sophie Harvey, Florent Manaudou and Chad le Clos.
He said: “It saddens me that I couldn’t continue my journey in the Netherlands with Mark. We’ve achieved so much together, and that connection will always mean a lot to me. But at the same time, I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity to train and live in Hong Kong. I truly believe this is the best option for me right now. To find the stability, support, and clarity I need to swim at my best again.”
Of the four swimmers to train under Faber in Amsterdam, three – and all of them Olympic medallists – have chosen to leave the Netherlands to continue their training with only Simons remaining.