Olympic gold medals are heavy. Just ask Forster’s Lynne Burton, the ecstatic mother of Olympian Tom Burton, who just won gold at Rio in sailing’s Laser class. 

“It’s around my neck, at this actual moment!” Lynne said, out celebrating in Rio de Janeiro with the rest of Australia’s “sailing friends and family” at what they call the sailing hub.

“I’m talking with New Zealand’s Sam Meech, who came third.”

A retired school teacher, Lynne and her husband Peter, a chartered accountant who has been sailing for 40 years, only moved permanently to Forster from Sydney three months ago. 

Their gold medal bearing son learnt the ropes from Peter, climbing on board aged nine when they bought him a boat. 

“He always loved sailing but didn’t necessarily want to race. Between the ages of nine and 12, if there was a big wind he didn’t even want to go out!” Peter laughed.

“He didn’t really go out into anything remotely resembling a breeze until 12 or 13,” Lynne agreed, adding they were very patient and took an easy approach.

Peter is now constantly amazed when he sees images of his son racing around the world in incredible conditions.

Describing their son as a quiet achiever, Peter said he may have started Tom off on sailing but his son just “took off from there” under the guidance of others and thanks to his focus, determination and motivation.

“The best I did, I won a couple of state titles and came 16th at the world titles in 2006 - Tom came 35th. He won junior world that year and the following year, he won state title and he beat me. Pretty much I’ve been following him ever since.”

Following him, in fact, all the way to Rio de Janeiro, where after 10 heats and a delayed final Tom entered the race sure of a medal… but it wasn’t gold. In fact, his parents were pretty calm heading into the event and didn’t quite believe he had won it until they saw Tom jumping up and down in the boat. 

“My husband was giving blow by blow descriptions of what was happening. It was hard to tell the difference between New Zealand and Australia, we thought we’d missed gold by one vote. But everyone around was yelling ecstatically,” Lynne said, describing the experience as unbelievable.

“When he won? Wow. It was a bit emotional,” Peter agreed, admitting to a few tears shed by he, Lynne, and Tom’s girlfriend. 

“To be brutally honest, I have always believed he was the real deal. I have never wavered from that thought. He has an innate ability to be successful. He’s got something that you can’t teach people, whatever it is, to become the sportsman that he always wanted to be.”

Lynne agreed.

“When we came here, we met one of the journos on the way, and he asked us what Tom was hoping for. “He’s going for gold” we said. He looked at us and said: “really?” Absolutely. And he’s done it. It is the Olympics! How great is that?”