Not everybody can say their son is a world-record-holder, but Elisabeth Seirer has now added it to the long list of reasons why Rick Seirer is "her champion".
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Rick, the only child of Mrs Seirer and husband Josef, has become the oldest person to swim a double crossing of the English Channel just weeks before his 60th birthday.
"I was speechless, because he already swam the Channel one way three years ago, and I thought for him to do the double at 59, it will be an impossibility," the Cornishtown grandmother said.
"But I said, 'If you want to do it, I'll support you'.
"As a mother you always worry, because it's a big swim and there were so many obstacles in his way.
"I'd been tracking him all the way from the start (via a GPS tracker) and I could see he made it."
Rick, who lives near Maryborough, started swimming at 3.40pm Australian time on Monday and was in the water for just under 30 hours.
His coach, marathon swimmer Chloe McCardel, shared the good news with Rick's supporters, posting on Facebook; "This man is a living legend".
The pair had met, Rick told the Ballarat Courier before he left, while doing a swim series in his early 50s.
"We were down at Queenscliff and saw a group of people standing around talking," Rick said.
"There was a blonde girl in the middle talking away. It happened to be (distance and marathon swimmer) Chloe McCArdel, who's been a channel swimmer for a number of years. And a friend turned around and said 'you want to have a crack at that,' because I enjoyed distance swimming. That's how it started."
Swimming from England to France and back took 17 hours longer than Rick's first channel crossing in 2016.
"He rang me on Wednesday morning and he was very exhausted, very tired, but he was very happy to make it into the Guinness book of records," Mrs Seirer said.
"He said 'Mum, that was the hardest thing I've done in my whole life'.
"I asked him what he was thinking when he was swimming in the middle of the night, and he said, 'I thought of the people I love'."
IN OTHER NEWS:
Rick took the World Record from Sally Anne Minty-Gravett, who completed the two-way English Channel swim in 2016, 45 days after her 59th birthday.
The first double crossing was completed by an Argentinian man in 1961 - but he took 42 hours!
And for all Mrs Seirer knows, her son could one day take the record for the oldest man to swim the channel (it's at 73).
"I asked him what he wants for his 60th birthday and he said, 'Mum, I've already got it'.
"He's our champion."
