America's Cup- Who is Emirates Team NZ's Peter Burling?

by Ben Gladwell, Boating on 29 Apr 2015 Last month, Peter Burling found himself in an awkward role: the likely replacement as Dean Barker exited Emirates Team New Zealand declaring he wasn't bitter but he wouldn't be back.

Burling handled it the same way, it seems, he handles everything – calmly, confidently, with his eyes on the goal. In an interview, Burling speaks slowly and looks around with the intense, clear-eyed gaze that is common among young athletes. He is humble – yet he has the unrushed demeanour of a man who knows he is good at what he does.

At 24, Burling has five world titles across three classes of boat. Now, named as one of Emirates Team New Zealand's helmsmen for the 2017 America's Cup, he has been identified to the world as one of the hottest talents in his sport.

Growing up in Tauranga, Burling was a quiet kid. Like many Kiwis, he was dragged along to sailing because his older brother was into it.

'I didn't really enjoy it that much until I got into the racing side of it,' he says. 'After that things happened pretty quickly.'

He soon won his first Optimist nationals, but he thinks he could have done better.

[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]
'In my first year in the Opti worlds team, I was eleven and everyone else was fourteen or fifteen. It was cool to train and hang out with the older guys but I ended up around a hundredth. The regatta wasn't great,' he says.

'When I jumped in the Starling, that was the first boat I really got on a good run in. Once I started sailing it full time I didn't lose an event in two years, which includes nationals and match racing.'

His father, Richard Burling, says that even then, Burling was competitive.

'He was always trying to keep up with his older brother in everything. When we had two old Lasers and Pete was in an Opti – they would swap boats with his mum and Pete would race his dad in the Laser. He was a quiet kid, bordering on a bit shy. He loved all sports – played miniball and soccer at primary school. Kind, compassionate and very loyal. He loved making and fixing things, loved working on his yachts. Pete would never give up.'
Blair Tuke (left) and Peter on the podium at the London Olympics, 2012.
onEdition

When Burling was 11, he won the first two races of the Optimist nationals and finished second overall amongst a top-10 of 14 and 15-year-olds. Aged 15, Burling and Carl Evans became the youngest-ever winners of the 420 Worlds. Richard and Heather Burling realised then that their son would excel in sailing.
Ad Feedback

'We've given up having expectations long ago as Pete has always outperformed them,' says Richard: 'The better you do, the better you want to do.'

Burling racked up another world title in the 420, was the youngest sailor at the 2008 Olympics where he competed in the 470, won the Youth America's Cup in 2013, competed in the Sydney-Hobart, and placed third in the A-Class catamaran worlds – despite limited time in the boat - and signed up with ETNZ.
Peter and Blair at Santander ISAF Sailing World Championship
Barbara Sanchez

The last time Burling and his 49er sailing partner Blair Tuke lost a regatta together was nearly three years ago – they were beaten by their training partners, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, and placed second in the London 2012 Olympics.

Since London they have been virtually untouchable, winning back-to-back European and world titles.

En route to claiming their second European Championship title, they won a race by such a big margin that they had sailed ashore, washed their boat and were conducting TV interviews before half the fleet had finished.

For the rest of this story click here

[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]
[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]
[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]
[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]
[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]