THE GOLDEN BOYS
A brewing company puts sports trivia questions on its bottle caps and, in this instance, asked which athletes won New Zealand’s 100th Olympic medal.
That honour fell to Peter Burling and Tuke with their silver in the 49er at the 2012 London Games, a result which announced their arrival to the wider New Zealand public. It’s fair to say, 10 years on, they are the answers to an abundance of trivia questions.
In Olympic class sailing alone, they accumulated six world 49er titles together, three Olympic medals and countless other continental, World Cup and national titles. They were also named World Sailors of the Year – Burling also picked up the gong in 2017 – and were the most dominant combination in modern Olympic sailing.
We might never see anything like that sort of pre-eminence again, and certainly won’t see it from Burling and Tuke in a 49er again in the near future.
The pair announced recently they had re-signed with Team New Zealand for the next America’s Cup. The timing of that Cup defence, together with their ongoing commitments with the New Zealand SailGP Team (they’re sailors and joint CEOs) and their environmental charity Live Ocean, makes it impossible for them to chase a fourth medal at the 2024
