Emotional Ironman Asia-Pacific champion explains his incredible comeback from almost losing his foot

After taking the biggest win of his career today at the Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship in Cairns, Australia, Western Australia’s Matt Burton shocked the international press on hand for the event with his incredible comeback story.

Four months ago they almost amputated his foot. Today he won the Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship

Last December Burton, 36, celebrated a breakthrough day at his home race – Ironman Western Australia. As he’d done in years past, he’d broken the course record, but because he finished second, the new course best wouldn’t be his. He’d finished second to the great two-time Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee (GBR) in 2019. In 2021 he won the race, then took third in 2022. Last year, despite a 3:59 bike split and a blazing 7:40:28 finish, he was second again, this time to Denmark’s Daniel Baekkegard.

Shortly after that big win, Burton suddenly found himself dealing with a potentially career-ending diagnosis.

“I actually had a a bone infection in my right small toe and I had two surgeries and then we went to go back in for a third one,” Burton said in a post-race interview today. “But they said ‘we’ll probably have to take half your foot off.’ So it’s up to you if you want to trust … and take a big round of antibiotics and hope it works. Fortunate for me, it did.”

“Then it was the slow crawl back where every day was the PB,” he continued. “When you have 10 weeks off, you start from zero. You’ve got no fitness. But the beauty is muscle memory. Ohh. Muscle does remember, and it just took ten weeks to remember before I really started to feel a little bit more myself. And then I decided to come here (two Cairns) two weeks earlier and it was the best decision in my life.” 

How close was Burton to losing his foot?  

“I went into surgery and the doctor was like if it’s infected the toe enough when you come out, half your foot won’t be there,” he said. “And when I came out, it (his foot) was still there. They literally just washed around the area, but then they missed it [some of it].”

Married with a two and a half year old son, once he wasn’t able to race Burton found himself in need of some support.

“We moved back in with my wife’s mum and she’s been unbelievable,” Burton continued.   

When asked if the ordeal with his foot has changed his mindset, Burton was quick to point out that it has.

“I want to enjoy the sport more now,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of bad times where you sit on the side of the road … Sport is beautiful, but with all that, there’s trauma and there’s tribulation. It very much became about not just me performing today, but it’s having my wife and my son experience it. You know, as a real team, it’s it takes a lot more than an athlete to get across the line.” 

We’ll for sure see Burton in Kona – he looks to improve on his DNFs from St. George and Kona in 2022. He’ll also compete at the World Long-Distance Championships in Townsville this August. He’ll certainly be ready to compete with the world’s best – today he proved that he can bike with the best, but hold off some of the sport’s top runners, too.

Burton is all too aware that he needs to be patient about making a decision – today’s high from the big win doesn’t make it easy to make the objective decisions a pro needs to make.

“This is unbelievable,” Burton said. “I think this will take a solid week to to sink in – for me, my wife and my son.“