Roman Hagara
Roman Hagara is an Austrian sailor who has won the gold medal in the Tornado class at two consecutive Olympic Games.
Hagara, and his colleague Hans-Peter Steinacher won the gold medal in the Tornado class at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and successfully defended their title at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, which, to date, makes them Austria's the most successful summer sport athletes as the first professional Austrian sailing team.
Hagara was the Flagbearer for the Austrian team at the 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony. Along with his teammate Steinacher, he has won the Austrian Sports Personality of the Year twice, in 2000 and 2004.
Career
Born in Vienna, Hagara represents the Yachtclub Zell am See. Originally trained in windsurfing, Roman Hagara soon competed against his now teammate Hans-Peter Steinacher, until they decided in 1997 to train for the 2000 Olympics together. Before 1997, Roman Hagara worked as crew, then changed to skipper.In the 2000 Olympics, the team was the very first to work with customized sails. Since then, the team has always focused on being ahead of technological developments, which now shows in their involvement in the foiling technology.
America's Cup and Red Bull Youth America's Cup
Since 2009, he has focused more on the big boat scene with Hans-Peter Steinacher, including competing on an America's Cup yacht. Hagara was the skipper of Hagara-Steinacher Racing in the 2011–13 America's Cup World Series.Under the flag of the United States for San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club, the duo competed in a 2013 America's Cup World Series event in Naples, Italy. Racing this event gave the team firsthand experience in what has become Hagara and Steinacher's primary focus, mentoring the next generation of sailors on the next generation of sail boats: hydrofoils.