Adam Peaty says he has had to drastically change his relationship with winning, no longer tying his results to his general happiness, in order to recover from the most difficult period of his career and pursue a potential third consecutive gold medal in the 100m backstroke at the Paris Olympics.
“My relationship with a gold medal now is I know that it won’t solve any of the problems that I want it to,” said Peaty, who is working through his final preparations at Team GB’s pre-Olympics preparation camp in Reims before his arrival in Paris. “When you’re younger, you’re like: ‘If I get a gold medal, it’s gonna solve so many problems.’ And it does, but it’s not going to solve the problems that I seek [to resolve]. And obviously now I do it to win, I want to be the best. I am the best. I’ve still got the world record. And I’m going to have a good challenge come Paris. That’s the only thing that gets me excited.”
In his first two Olympic cycles Peaty made dominance look simple, constantly winning by massive gaps and carrying himself with a distinct outward confidence. He broke records seemingly for fun, becoming the first man to dip under 58sec in the 100m breaststroke and then, while the world was still failing to catch up, going on to break the 57sec barrier.
The past three years, however, have tested the 29-year-old in ways he could have never imagined. Since 2021, he has split from his former partner Eiri Munro, the mother of their three-year-old son; he suffered a broken foot; and he seriously considered retirement after surviving what he described as a breakdown that caused him to become reliant on alcohol as an escape from his problems. In order to make it back for a third Olympic Games, Peaty has had to approach his sport differently.
“When you have children, when you hug them, you realise that it is something greater than anything can ever provide,” he said. “If I touch the wall, if it’s not the result I want I’ll be disappointed. But before, in comparison, in 2021, even 2022 and way before that, I’d be almost tearing myself apart that my life isn’t worth living, because you lost. That isn’t sustainable because there’s not an attitude to have.
“I’m not defined as a human by that. Maybe an athlete and maybe other people will define me that way. But I’ll still have my family; they’re healthy, they’re happy. The sun always rises the next morning no matter what. That’s not defeatist, in any sense. That just gives me peace, so you can attack.”
During this period, Peaty has found peace in attending church and therapy. Having spent much of his career loudly declaring his greatness, he says he is a lot calmer. Still, while he believes making it to Paris is an immense achievement, his goals in the pool are unchanged.
“Getting to the starting line is a huge one for me, but I feel like I’m already at the starting line now. If you’re at the holding camp, you’re pretty much at the starting line, and the focus now goes from: ‘OK, I’m here,’ to: ‘How do I turn it into a win?’ So that’s where the focus is.”
Alongside Peaty, Great Britain’s 33-member swimming team are also undergoing their final preparations in Reims. In Tokyo, Duncan Scott became the first British athlete to win four medals at a single Olympics with two individual silvers and a gold and silver in the relays. Scott said he hopes the Olympics will positively affect swimming in the UK, whether at grassroots or performance level.
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“Either way it’s a real positive. Also the time difference with it only being an hour, that’s going to be a real benefit for Britain. Not just for swimming, but for all sports as well. The spectator value from British people is going to be huge.”
For Freya Colbert, a 20-year-old who specialises in the 400m medley, this will be a particularly interesting moment. In February, she won gold at the world championships. But Summer Mcintosh, the dominant 17-year-old Canadian swimmer whose world record is 10 seconds faster than Colbert’s personal best, was not present in Doha and will be the heavy favourite in Paris. Colbert has had to wrap her head around coming into the Olympics as the reigning world champion yet still being an underdog.
“It’s definitely taken a little bit of getting used to – initially there was a little bit of anxiety, like: ‘Ah, I’m going in as the world champion but I’m not really hoping to win, I’m just hoping to make it on the podium,’” she said. “Just learning how to deal with that and everything that comes with it is something that has been really valuable. I just feel pretty relaxed and quietly confident that I’ll be able to put together a good race and a PB for myself, which is all that I can do.”
