"You can’t get much more extreme in sailing"

Actually, at the time, Hans-Peter Steinacher originally wanted to swap his sailing career for a business career, when the Tornado sailor, Roman Hagara, got him 1997 in the boat. In the nine years that followed, the two Austrians sailed on to numerous titles including two Olympic gold medals, three European Championship titles and one World Championship title. In an interview of the special kind, Hagara & Steinacher reveal how they view each other and tell of moments which will particularly stay in their memories. Following Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher gives his account of things in the second part.

Hans-Peter, in the first part of the interview, Roman Hagara spoke a little about you. Now it’s your turn: In your opinion, what kind of description would be next to Roman’s name in the sailing encyclopedia?
That’s easy: The perfectionist.

Why?
Because he is a huge figure in his field, and fiddles with things so long in the preparation phase until he is content. Even if that seemingly takes forever – he doesn’t give up until he has attained what he thinks is possible.

That’s a lot, as proven by your successes. And how does Roman behave during a competition?
He is also a perfectionist in the boat. What I particularly admire about him: he never loses his cool. And with “never”, I really mean “never”. There, the situation can be so much tenser.

Can you give an example of this?
At the Olympics in Athens, it was totally extreme. We both knew what the main objective there was: to win Olympic gold for the second time. We were about 100 meters away from the finish line, and had some problems with the mast, and the lead we had in front of the second place boat was anything but big.
In such a case as this, you can’t get much more extreme in sailing – I was really more than just tense. And suddenly Roman shows how cool he is with the situation and hollers to me: “You know what? If the mast doesn’t break, we’ve got it.” And he was right about that.

What does this success mean to him?
It is certainly his greatest success. As it is mine – in this, we can agree. When someone is able to defend his Olympics victory after four years, that is simply something exceptional.

And what are things like concerning nervousness before a competition?
This doesn’t happen, Roman is a sailor with steel nerves. To be completely honest: I have never experienced him being nervous. Nervousness would be a totally bad sign.

What is actually the greatest thing that Roman treated himself to after one of your successes?
That is a good question … Roman is a very modest individual. But if you include everything over all of the years, it is definitely his house that he is building right now.

You have been friends for years, how would you describe Roman, the private person?
He is honest and direct, doesn’t beat around the bush and doesn’t try to fool anyone about anything. And on the other side of the coin, he is always up for having some fun. I think that is why we are also such good friends.

Last question: A bigger goal than the World Sailing Games are the Olympics in 2008 in Peking. Is this also the last big goal?
Certainly in the Tornado class. I would generally like to keep sailing afterwards – assuming I am still usable! If so, there will certainly be more people on the boat after Peking.