Roosevelt Cup
The Roosevelt Cup is a sailing trophy . It was donated in 1896 by the then US Secretary of the Navy and later US President, Theodore Roosevelt . The trophy is still being sailed at the Kieler Woche today.
history
The German Kaiser Wilhelm II , who was keen on sailing , had given an American shipyard the order to build a new imperial yacht, the Meteor III . The christening of the ship in 1896 became a symbol of the German-American sailing friendship: The Emperor's brother, Prince Heinrich , had traveled as well as the then Minister of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt to solemnly christen the ship and put it into operation. On this occasion, the later President Roosevelt donated the sailing trophy named after him: To strengthen the American relationship with the German Empire, the best American and German special class boats were to be sailed around regularly in Marblehead . Kaiser Wilhelm reciprocated by donating the Kaiser Wilhelm Cup . The first regatta was won by boats from the USA. Every time there was extensive coverage of the regattas in the German media.
The Roosevelt Cup is still being sailed today, but no longer in America, but in Kiel : the boat with the most points in the overall ranking of all classes in the Olympic part of the Kiel Week is the winner. The location of the trophy, on which the crossed flags of Germany (then black-white-red) and America stand out from the silver background, is the Hotel Kieler Yacht Club .