Peter Burling

EVENT: Sailing: Men's 49er

Peter Burling, born in Tauranga in 1991, is one of the greatest New Zealand sailors, a triple Olympic medallist in the 49er class, and a double America’s Cup winner.

Burling started sailing at six in the Welcome Bay estuary near his home in Tauranga. At eight, he joined Tauranga Yacht Club and began competing.

He sailed in his first optimist nationals at nine and two years later, in 2002, was second in the national under-16 optimist champs. He competed in the 2002 world optimist championship in Texas when he was 11.

In 2003, at 12, Burling won the New Zealand optimist nationals and competed in the 2003 optimist worlds in the Canary Islands, finishing 40th.

When he was 15, Burling and Carl Evans won the 2006 420 class world championship in the Canary Islands – the youngest sailors ever to do so. They also won the under-16 and under-18 world titles.

At 16, Burling successfully defended his world 420 title in Auckland and also won the under-18 world championship.

Burling attended Tauranga Boys’ College, a contemporary of cricketer Kane Williamson. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Auckland University and had completed half of the four-year degree before sailing began claiming all his time.

After his brilliant junior career, Burling joined forces with Blair Tuke and they became one of the most formidable combinations in world sailing.

They first made an impression on the New Zealand sports public during the 2012 London Olympics, when they were impressive silver medallists in the 49er class. They were the youngest team in the field and won New Zealand’s 100th Olympic medal.

The pair were utterly dominant at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, sealing the gold medal with two races to spare and by a 43-point margin. It was the biggest win of any sailing class in the Olympics since 1968, when the modern scoring system started. They finished ahead of the second-placed Australian boat in 11 of the 13 races.

The two men were co-captains of the 2016 New Zealand Olympic team, so performed the unusual feat of captaining the team and winning gold.

They returned to the Olympic arena in Tokyo in 2021, when they fought hard to win the silver medal again, being denied the gold only on a countback.

After their triumph in Rio, Burling and Tuke, who were coached by America’s Cup veteran and three times 49er world champion Hamish Willcox, turned their attention to the America’s Cup.

They helped Team New Zealand reclaim the America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017 with a 7-1 thumping of Oracle Team USA. Burling was the helmsman. They backed up that effort in Auckland in 2021 when, with Burling captain and helmsman, Team New Zealand successfully defended the Cup at home, beating Circolo della Vella Sicilia 7-3.

Quite apart from the Olympics and America’s Cup, two of sailing’s highest mountain peaks, Burling and Tuke have built an incredible record in other events.

They won the 49er world championship from 2013-16, and then again in 2019 and 2020 – six times in all. They were unbeaten in 27 major 49er regattas between the London and Rio Olympics.

Burling compiled a fine record in offshore sailing. In the 2017-18 Volvo ocean race he was Team Brunel’s watch captain and helmsman and helped the team to third place. Earlier in 2017, he sailed on Nikita in the Fastnet race and the team finished third. He has also competed in the Auckland to Fiji and Sydney to Hobart races.

Burling was the 2015 moth world champion and was second two years later. He finished third in the 2014 A class catamaran worlds.

Burling and Tuke elected to bypass the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the chance of a fourth Olympic medal, because of their commitments to team New Zealand’s America’s Cup defence in Barcelona. The two events clashed almost directly.

In November 2015, Burling and Tuke were named the International Sailing Federation’s World Male Sailors of the Year. They won the Yachting New Zealand Sailor of the Year title in four consecutive years from 2013. Burling was again named Male World Sailor of the Year in 2017 and was awarded the Magnus Olsson prize in 2020 ‘for an indelible contribution to the world of sailing’.

The pair also had success at the Halberg Awards, sharing in the Supreme Halberg Award with other members of Team New Zealand in 2017, and winning the Team of the Year for their Olympic gold in 2016 and with Team New Zealand the following year. In 2020 they were awarded the NZOC’s Lonsdale Cup.

Burling and Tuke were named Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2017. 

They are joint CEOs of the New Zealand SailGP team, and set up an environmental charity, Live Ocean, to help position New Zealand as world leaders in ocean health.