Birkdale's Julie Coutts waves an Aussie flag for daughter Alicia, who has won four medals at the London Olympic Games.
THE mother of Olympic gold medallist Alicia Coutts won't be in London for the closing ceremony, where her daughter is tipped to carry the Australian flag.
Golden girl tipped to carry flag at closing ceremony
Julie Coutts, who lives at Birkdale, will fly out of London on August 10, hours before the closing ceremony.
In an exclusive interview with The Redland Times, Mrs Coutts said she would have liked to have been at the closing ceremony but couldn't afford it.
"The closing ceremony is well and truly out of anyone's reach," she said.
"I don't have tickets as I could only afford tickets for the swimming events Alicia was competing in.
"We will be flying out of London before then anyway and I have to get back to work," Mrs Coutts said.
The proud mum said she had not been told if her daughter would carry the flag at the ceremony, as Alicia had done at the end of the Commonwealth Games in 2010.
It also came as a surprise to her when Alicia swam in the 200m freestyle relay, in which the Aussies won silver and Alicia pocketed her fourth medal, early yesterday morning.
"It's not really her specialty and she has not trained specifically for it, but anything can happen here, it just depends on who swims the best time," Mrs Coutts said.
Swimming Australia's president David Urquhart, who coached Alicia at the Cleveland pool before she moved to the Australian Institute of Sport in 2006, was also kept in the dark until hours before the relay.
Even Alicia was astonished to have been chosen and was having a massage when notified she was in the team.
"I was a bit nervous coming into the race because I don't normally do 200m freestyle, so I just wanted to go out there and do the best that I could and hopefully make the girls proud of what I was able to do, so I hope I did that," she said in an interview after the race.
Mrs Coutts also spoke about the overwhelming joy of watching her 24-year-old daughter win four medals in four races at the Olympics.
She told The Redland Times she cried tears of "disbelief" watching her daughter claw her way up the pool in the 100m butterfly to win a silver medal, after seeing her win gold and bronze, days before.
Security efforts to keep her from handing her daughter flowers after she won gold in the 100m freestyle relay on day one of the games were "frustrating".
"After she won the gold, security would not even let me down near the pool to give her some flowers but when she won the next medal, I said 'I'm going down to the pool no matter what'. Since then, I have been able to get closer."
Mrs Coutts, in the UK for 14 days with her son Brad and Alicia's boyfriend, Stephen Hardy, said all she could think of was "giving her a big hug and telling her how good I thought she was".
"We are not allowed into the Olympic Village. I really only get to see her when she is competing or when she is on the podium collecting a medal so it's good that she has won so many medals."
Mrs Coutts said she hoped for some "family time" after the swimming events finished and said Alicia planned to ask Swimming Australia for permission to leave the village to catch up with her mum in London.
Coutts will take to the pool tonight (Friday) for the heats of the 100m medley relay at 8.45pm (AEST) before the finals are held on Sunday, August 5 at 5.07am (AEST).