Adam Peaty’s place in the swimming history books is already assured.
The Uttoxeter swimmer boards the Eurostar to Paris already a three-time Olympic champion, eight-time world champion and almost universally regarded as the greatest sprint breaststroker of all time.
He heads to Paris 2024 looking for another slice of history, trying to join Michael Phelps as the only male swimmers ever to have won the same event at three successive Olympics.
This cycle has been like no other for Peaty, however, who heads to France looking to restore his aura of invincibility more than a decade on from his emergence onto the scene.
When did Adam Peaty start swimming?
That Peaty has established himself as Britain’s greatest-ever swimmer is a remarkable achievement considering that he had an acute fear of the water as a youngster.
By the age of nine, he had put that fear behind him and joined Dove Valley Swimming Club in Uttoxeter, with the biggest step in his career arguably coming at 14 when he joined City of Derby.
There, he began working under former Olympic swimmer Mel Marshall, who remains his coach to this day.
It was Marshall who saw that Peaty had huge potential in breaststroke.
Still, it took London 2012 for Peaty to realise that he had greatness in him. Watching age-group rival Craig Benson compete in the semi-finals of a home Games, while he himself was getting ready to go drinking in a field was the wake-up call Peaty needed.
From there, he knew that he had to get serious.
Adam Peaty swimming domination
A first international appearance came at the European Short Course Championships in 2013, and the following year was the moment that he announced himself to the world.
At the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Peaty narrowly lost to world record holder Cameron van der Burgh in the 50m breaststroke before taking down the Olympic champion in the 100m breaststroke.
He added a relay gold medal and then went to the European Championships in Berlin where he broke a first world record, in the 50m breast, and won four gold medals.
Within a year, he was the fastest man in history over both 50m and 100m, and a triple world champion – not to mention, the red-hot favourite for Olympic gold in Rio.
Adam Peaty at Tokyo 2020
Every step of the way, Peaty rose to the challenge, and that was certainly the case in 2016 when he set two world records on the way to winning the 100m breaststroke, Team GB’s first gold of the Games.
It ended a 28-year wait for a British man to win Olympic gold in swimming and cemented Peaty’s position as untouchable in his sport.
That legacy was cemented further when he defended his title in Tokyo five years later – the Covid-19 pandemic only delaying the inevitable as he continued to race in a different class to the rest of the world. The gulf between Peaty and every other breaststroker also proved crucial in securing mixed medley relay gold – making him Britain’s most successful-ever Olympic swimmer.
Adam Peaty's return
Peaty returned from Japan having achieved everything you can in the sport, which is among the most demanding from a training perspective.
The arrival of son George-Anderson in September 2020 had also given him a different focus away from the pool, and he spent the end of 2021 taking a break from swimming to compete on Strictly Come Dancing.
A broken foot then ruled him out of the 2022 World Championships, ending a seven-year run of total domination at the event over both 50m and 100m breaststroke.
Peaty had not lost in the latter event in eight years, but after rushing back for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, that streak was ended by compatriot James Wilby.
While Peaty did win 50m breaststroke in Birmingham, securing the only major gold medal that had eluded him to that point, he admitted he had lost that spark.
When in 2023, he announced that he was taking time away from racing because of mental health pressures, it was clear this Olympic cycle had taken its toll.
Peaty openly spoke about how he turned to alcohol to help him cope with self-destructive feelings.
He said in an interview with The Times: “I got to a point in my career where I didn’t feel like myself, I didn’t feel happy swimming, I didn’t feel happy racing, my biggest love in the sport. I’ve had my hand hovering over a self-destruct button because if I don’t get the result that I want, I self-destruct.”
After three years of hell, Peaty re-established his Olympic credentials at the British trials in April, booking his place in Paris with his quickest time since 2021.
With the most turbulent period of his career behind him, Britain’s greatest-ever swimmer has his sights set on conquering the world once again.
Sportsbeat 2024