Roland Gäbler (born 9 October 1964 in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

) is a German sailor and member in the

Norddeutscher Regatta Verein Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV), approx. meaning "North German Regatta Club", is a yacht club in Germany. This club is based in Uhlenhorst, Hamburg, Germany; the clubhouse is located at Hamburg's Lake Außenalster. Founded in 1868, it is one ...

as well as in the

Kieler Yacht-Club Kieler Yacht-Club (''Kiel Yacht Club'') is one of the oldest yacht clubs in Germany. It is located in the harbor city of Kiel. This club is well known for some of the yacht racing events it organizes. The main one is the yearly Kieler Woche (Kie ...

. He competed in five

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. Roland Gäbler grew up in Bremen, where he started sailing on the river

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

. His talent for sailing was advanced by his parents, who bought him an old

Laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

. At the age of 14 he competed in his first

regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wa ...

, one year later he won his first sailing competition. During his career in the Laser dinghy, Roland Gäbler won two European Championships and 14 international Championships. With 23 years Roland Gäbler switched the racing class to catamaran and sailed a

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

, together with his Laser training partner Hans-Jürgen Pfohe. Both competed in the

Kiel Week The Kiel Week () or Kiel Regatta is an annual sailing event in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is considered to be one of the largest sailing events globally, and also the largest summer festivals in Northern Europe, ...

Martina Brüske
Auf Titeljagd im Tornado
In ''

Welt Online (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

'', June 17, 2007 and qualified straightaway for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, however they won no medal. During the rough regatta Roland Gäbler suffered a fracture of his hand. Job reasons forced Hans-Jürgen Pfohe to quit sailing in 1989. Frank Parlow became Roland Gäblers new partner. The team won four European Tornado Championships and the World Championship in 1996 for the first time. Also the cooperation with Frank Parlow was fruitful: they qualified for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona (11. place) and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta (7. place). In 1997 René Schwall became crew and team partner of Roland Gäbler. They won two further World Championships and three European Championships as well as a bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In 2001 Roland Gäbler became German head coach of the Deutscher Segler-Verband for the Tornado and 49er class. In 1995 and 1997 Roland Gäbler was awarded the title ''German Sailor of the Year'' as well as two times the award

Silbernes Lorbeerblatt Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (, ), the highest sports award in Germany, was endowed on 23 June 1950 by the German President Theodor Heuss. It is awarded to athletes and teams of exemplary character that have won medals at Olympic and Paralympic Games ...

. Roland Gäbler together with the adventurer and balloonist

Steve Fossett James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – September 3, 2007) was an American businessman and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraf ...

also established a world record in high-speed sailing on the catamaran ''PlayStation'' (34m length) in 2001. Together with Gunnar Struckmann as crew Roland Gäbler won the German championship, the Volvo Champions Race and the Kiel Week 2005 - Gäblers fifth success in this competition. Together they sailed the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 (11. place). Since 2009 Roland Gäbler has been sailing with his wife Nahid Gäbler. They straight away won the

Travemünde Week image:Viermastbark passat in luebeck travemuende.jpg, Barque ''Passat'' in Travemünde The Travemünder Woche (engl. ''Travemünde Week'') is the second largest annual race week in sailing (sport), sailing in Germany (after Kiel Week). Since 1889, ...

and the German championship 2009. In 2010 they won the World Championship in Tornado sailing - as first mixed team ever. Together they are 6 times Mixed World Champions and 6 times Mixed European Champions in a row, and in 2013 and 2015 they also become European Champions in the Open

Tornado (sailboat) The Tornado is a double handed multihull class recognised as an International Class by the International Sailing Federation. It was used for the Catamaran discipline at the Sailing at the Summer Olympics, Olympic Games from 1976 to 2008. Design ...

. In 2015 Roland has won 10 times Gold medals in

Tornado World Championship The Tornado World Championship are international sailing regattas in the Tornado class organized by the host club on behalf of the International Tornado class Association and recognised by World Sailing. For the original open event, the most titl ...

in 2015. Besides several national and international titles, they also become winner of the Kiel Week in

2012 Kiel, Germany, and winner of the Blue Ribbon of Round Fehmarn - Open class 2010. In 2010 Roland Gäbler wins the biggest blue ribbon race on lake Balaton with the Ventilo M2 multihull with the boatowner Rolf Hufnagel. In 2011 he is also winner of the Gorla race 2011 under 30 foot - Ventilo M2 with the boatowner Rolf Hufnagel and his wife Nahid Gäbler as crew. In the season 2011 Roland Gäbler was skipper on the

Extreme 40 The Extreme 40 is a class of sailing catamaran created by TornadoSport and designed by Yves Loday. The boats are 40 feet long and are constructed out of carbon fibre. They have a top speed of about and can sail at about in 20–25 knots of wind ...

named Team Extreme in

Extreme Sailing Series The Extreme Sailing Series (ESS) (formerly the iShares Cup) was an annual global racing series, organised by OC Sport, which ran from 2007 to 2018. The series started in 2007 with its main attraction being the stadium racing which puts the race ...

References

External links

* * * * *
Team Gaebler official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabler, Roland 1964 births Living people Sportspeople from Bremen (city) German male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sailors at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sailors at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sailors at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Tornado Olympic sailors for Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in sailing Extreme Sailing Series sailors Tornado class world champions World champions in sailing for Germany Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Kieler Yacht-Club sailors 20th-century German sportsmen