Jochen Schuemann
Jochen Schuemann (b. 1954) burst on the consciousness of the American
sailing public in late 2002 as the afterguard strategist and technician
who made the dynamic duo of Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth nearly
invincible. But any student of the Olympics, including his former
competitors, already knew the superstar. "After Paul Elvström," says
John Bertrand, "Schuemann is the greatest Olympic sailing champion
ever." He won the Finn class gold medal against Bertrand, the
Australian champ in 1976, but Schuemann's greatest success came in the
Soling class in which he won two Olympic golds and a silver.Born
in East Berlin, Schuemann learned about sailing as an 11-year-old
through a "boatbuilding and sailing" class in which he helped build an
Optimist dinghy. When it was time to sail the dinghy, "It didn't start
too well," he says. "It was windy, and I returned to the habor because
I was afraid of sinking." Despite that setback, Schuemann grew up to
race Finns until 1984, when the Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the
Olympics." That nearly ended my Olympic career," he says. "I was so
angry." But two friends from his home yacht club-Thomas Flach and Bernd
Jäkel-rescued him and together created a Soling team that, starting in
1985, won a medal in the European or world championships from then
onward. Schuemann's biggest disappointment was a fourth in
Barcelona, when he found his team's light-air speed and match-racing
skills weren't good enough, especially against Jesper Bank, of Denmark,
who won the gold. Schuemann also blames his nerves: "I lost my focus
and collided with Lawrie Smith and was penalized. Everything went
wrong." That was the aberration for this champion of cool
decision making. After rebounding for a gold in Savannah in '96, he and
his teammates shook hands and retired. Schuemann went to skipper of
Swiss Fast 2000 America's Cup project. When he realized how little
sailing practice he would be getting, however, he started a new Soling
team and nearly won another gold in 2000. By then, despite the rapid
elimination of the under-funded Fast 2000 effort, he'd met Ernesto
Bertarelli and Russell Coutts had talked him into another go at the
Cup. Schuemann joined Team Alinghi as strategist in their 2003
America's Cup winning campaign. For 2007, he is again the sailing team
director for Alinghi. Sailing World conducted an interview with Jochen Schuemann shortly after his induction into the Hall of Fame-to read, click here
