On 25 September 2013, the impossible happened: Oracle Team USA won the prestigious America’s Cup, by beating Emirates Team New Zealand by bridging an unbridgeable gap. Some people call it the greatest comeback in sport history.
The America’s Cup
The America’s Cup, also known as ‘The Auld Mug’ is an event between yacht clubs, the current holder of the cup and a challenger. This competition has a lot of status in the world of sailing. The team from the United States of America was the champion and Team New Zealand challenged the holders of the cup.
Team New Zealand and Team USA
Team USA had a false start of the 2013 America’s Cup, since they had two points deducted, due to unauthorized modifications to their catamaran and at one moment during the competition they were 8-1 down, with 9 wins needed to win the title.
While Team New Zealand almost could already taste the victory-champagne, Team USA wrote one of the most heroic stories in the world of sports: although it seemed like they were beaten, the determined crew won eight races in a row in the bay of San Francisco (USA) and won the America’s Cup 2013.
The final race was spectacular as well: the boat from New Zealand took the lead at the start of the last race, but at the end Oracle Team USA took over and claimed a legendary win over ‘The Kiwis’.
America’s Cup History
The America Cup is the oldest sporting trophy in the world and the history of the sail event goes back to 1851, when America was the first winner of the cup. It took until 1870, until the first challenges were launched and in the meantime, 34 America Cup events have been organized.
It is also one of the most difficult trophies to win, since the start in 1851, only five nations were able to win America’s Cup: Great Britain, United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland.
In the meantime, the sailing event has developed into a competition with cutting-edge technology, gamesmanship and the involvement of rich tycoons, such as Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison, who owns the Team USA boat.
