20 years campaigning

We speak to two time Olympic Gold Medallist, Roman Hagara

Few Olympic sailing disciplines reward ‘time in the boat’ as the Tornado Class. Even following the turboeing of the after the Sydney Olympics many young guns have failed to make an impression quickly. Austrian Roman Hagara is one of the key members of the elder statesman in Olympic Sailing circles and with 21 years in the Tornado class and two Gold medals he is without doubt at the grown up end of the spectrum.

Still on the regatta circuit, we caught up with Hagara, aged 40, at the Princess Sofia Regatta – the start of a summer of European sailing for the cat legend.

Relaxed and quiet Hagara immediately comes across as a modest and pleasant person. He tells us that the conditions out on the water were very tough today – suiting the brave cat sailor hitting the edges of the course. Hagara had not been having a great time of it over the course of the week scoring a twenty first, a first and most everything between. Despite this there was no tension in his voice or obvious frustration just an easy kind of acceptance that conditions were not particularly great. Another day in the office.

This unassuming nature of the Austrian can be somewhat deceptive. It is easy when speaking to Hagara to imagine that he is a laid back, uncompetitive sort - but a quick glance at his sailing CV shows a very different story indeed. He has helmed the Tornado since 1993 and in the past thirteen years has won: Two Olympic Gold Medals, two Pre-Olympic Gold Medals, SPA Regatta three times, Kiel Week three times and both the World and European Tornado Championships.

Hagara first came to racing catamarans at the age of 14. He starting out sailing Hobbie 16s and Dart 18s in 1980 with some success but racing really began to move forward in 1985. Aged 19 he moved into the Olympic class with his brother Andreas, the pair notching up very respectable results during a seven year partnership - but with the younger Roman crewing.

In 1993 the brothers split and Roman took up helming. His first partner in the boat was Wolfgang Mose and in three years from ’94 to ’96 they proved themselves on the circuit with consistent top ten finishes at the major regattas.

Consistent podium finishes, however, proved elusive and it was not until ’97 when Hagara first teamed up with his now long time Tornado crew Hans Peter Steinacher that a real Tornado legacy was born, delivering the key results when it really matters.



As is often the case with seasoned Olympic campaigners Hagara has been taking time off from the sailing circuit over the last couple of years, just doing the occasional event here and there. “I have mostly been going on holiday in the last year,” Comments Hagara. “We just tried to do the major events like the Europeans and a few other events to try and keep ourselves competitive, we have been missing a lot of the big events.” He says this is because it is easy to get bored with sailing if you do it seven days a week, 365 days a year and he likes to keep the sport exciting.

A year on “holiday” is not exactly the full picture and the pair have spent a lot of the winter in Argentina training. Hagara and Steinacher have a close relationship with their Argentinean training partners Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola and so head south for their “holidays”.

A 100% Olympic regatta circuit is still a year away for the Austrian pair. “This year is seeing a lot more sailing from us compared to last year, but it is not in anyway in the fulltime sailing area,” he says. “ We did not go to Miami so we lost those races and we did not do many races during the winter, so the Princess Sofia is the first event for us this year. We are definitely not doing as much as we will next year, when the Olympic selection properly begins. We are only just starting to slowly build up to the Olympics now.”

As well as spending time in Argentina, Hagara has also been out to Qingdao to check out the 2008 Olympic venue. His remains tight lipped when quizzed on this.

Hagara has lived and breathed the Tornado for such a long time we wonder why he hasn’t been attracted to other aspects of the sport. “I started sailing the Tornado in 1985 so I have been sailing the boat for a long time altogether. One of the things that has kept me in the fleet is the changes that have taken place through the years,” he explains.

He says that recently the addition of the gennaker has made downwind sailing significantly more tactical but more importantly has made the boat a lot more fun. In fact he says the entire Sport package has made the boat much better to sail. “The double trapeze and the square top mainsail have changed the boat a lot and it is a lot more fun than it used to be.” In addition to these more recent visual changes he says that the boat has never really stopped evolving and there is always something interesting to be done with sails and rigs.



Often when people have been in a class for a long time there is a resistance from them of significant change, preferring to keep the boat as it was. Hagara takes a very different attitude. He says that it is interesting to develop and tinker with new additions to the boat, for example the move to carbon masts. He also says that it is like sailing a new type of boat but also one that he is familiar in many different ways, in itself an interesting concept. “If the Tornado had stayed how it was I do not think that it would have continued to be an Olympic class or a popular international class,” he concludes.

Hagara is focused on 2008 in Beijing but thinks that this Olympics will be his last. This comes as no great surprise as he will have been sailing the boat for nearly 30 years come the end of this Olympic cycle. ”I will not be doing any more Olympics in the future and as for my plans we will have to wait and see. There is nothing that I have totally committed to doing yet. I have spoken to ISAF about a couple of things further down the line but that has not been finalised yet so we will just have to wait and see,” he intriguingly concludes.

Modest sailors are almost inversely proportional to their sailing achievements and Hagara is no exception. In two decades of Olympic sailing, Hagara has achieved more than most but he talks about sailing as if it is just something that he likes and by chance he happens to be quite good at it.

Having just turned 40 Hagara is confidently his own man, completely at one with his surroundings on the Olympic circuit. His group of friends is small and close and he does not need to make any noise to gain attention. He is a in a select group of Tornado legends.

Next for Hagara is upholding some national honour at the ISAF World Sailing Games. These are to be held on Lake Neusiedl, Austria and start on the 10th May.