It’s always funny when fate takes a hand.
In the summer of 1999, Beau Hoopman was sitting through freshman orientation here in Madison when a coach pulled him aside and told him he would make a good rower. Five short years later, he found himself competing amongst the world’s best at the XXVIII Olympiad.
“It’s unexplainable,” Hoopman said. “I have no idea how a person can pick up a sport, and in five years be at the pinnacle of competition. It just goes to show everyone the quality of coaching that exists at the UW.”
The U.S. boat featured rowers (from bow to stroke) Jason Read, Wyatt Allen, Chris Ahrens, Joseph Hansen, Matt Deakin, Dan Berry, Hoopman, Bryan Volpenhein and coxswain Pete Cippolone.
According to Hoopman, gelling together rowers from a multitude of backgrounds as a single unit proved a key factor in his boat’s Athens success.
“Every school has a different style of rowing, it’s just a matter of finding a rhythm together to make the boat as fast as possible, and we found that.” Hoopman said.
After a few months racing together on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J., the nine-man boat didn’t know how they would fare against international crews — they just knew they were fast.
They found out just how fast in a semifinal race against the world champion Canadian boat, where the U.S. men took advantage of a strong tailwind to set a new world record.
Less than a week later, Hoopman and U.S. rowing found themselves side-by-side with the highly touted Australians, Canada and the very best of Europe.
The United States opened up a sizable length of water ahead of second place Australia in the first 1000 meters. The lead held for the next 500 meters, but in the final split, the Netherlands representatives began to gain.
“I noticed them coming on at around the 500-meter mark,” Hoopman said. “And the stroke, Bryan Volpenhein, was looking over to the right periodically because the Aussies and the Canadians were over there. The Dutch were coming up on the left, so I just said, ‘the Dutch,’ and we focused our efforts on holding them off.”
The United States repelled the Dutch and finished with a time of 5:42.48, winning gold and ending a 40-year draught for U.S. rowing.
“Forty years is a long time, and there have been great rowers that have come close to ending the draught,” Hoopman said. “It’s just great to be a part of the crew that pulled it off.”
Wisconsin rowing coach Chris Clark, mentor to Hoopman during his collegiate career, explained how a kid from Plymouth, Wis., could end up performing on the Olympic stage.
“[Schools like] Harvard, California and Washington fill their boats with half foreign rowers,” Clark said. “We still have a lot of walk-ons; Beau was one of them.”
Hoopman displayed some of the prowess that landed him on the U.S. team during his senior year, helping propel Wisconsin to a No. 3 national ranking in 2003. The former walk-on went on to assist the U.S. fours boat to a 2004 World Cup championship in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Despite his natural ability, Hoopman’s late entry into the sport makes him somewhat of an anomaly in international rowing.
“There are a lot of professional rowers in Europe and you can make quite a living at it,” Clark said. “While it’s not unusual here, it’s very unusual at that level — he’s so good, so quickly.”
Hoopman says he remains indebted to the coaching staff at Wisconsin for preparing him for the success he currently enjoys.
“For me, [Clark] turned a former golfer into a human lung with an extreme tolerance for pain,” Hoopman explained. “He and former UW novice coach Greg Myhr deserve a lot of the credit for developing me as a rower and as a person.”
