Inspiring swimmers throughout the United Kingdom and around the world, Adam Peaty’s dominance in the 100m breaststroke continues to excite audiences globally. Scared of the water as a child, aged four, Peaty and a friend went on their first swimming lesson together. It was during this swimming lesson that he lost the fear.
Adam Peaty is now one of the biggest names in world swimming. The man that revolutionised breaststroke is a double individual Olympic champion, has broken the world record five times and has won all three world titles since 2015.
His domination began at the 2015 British Championships, aged 20, where he broke the 100m Breaststroke record, clocking 57.92, the first-ever swimmer to break into the 57-second barrier.
His motto, “Better never stops,” would see him break records over the next five years that were previously unthinkable in the world of aquatics.
Making his debut at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, he broke his own world record in the 100m breaststroke heats by 0.37 seconds, lowering it to 57.55. In the final, as an athlete that thrives on the noise of the crowd in the biggest stadiums, Peaty was on a level of his own, touching in at 57.13 to claim gold and set a new world record. He was the first Team GB athlete to take gold in Rio and became the first man to ever do the Worlds-Olympics-Worlds triple.
A year later, at the 17th FINA World Championships 2017 in Budapest, Hungary, Peaty won gold (57.47) and became the most successful British male swimmer at any FINA World Championships.
To his own surprise, he would go on to lower his time to 57.10 at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow. Talk of becoming the world’s first man to swim the 100m breaststroke in under 57 seconds would increase.
So, at the 18th FINA World Championships 2019 in Gwangju, he did exactly that with a time of 56.88. Athlete progression at its finest.
But we get the feeling that Peaty isn’t finished breaking new territory just yet. Ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Peaty told the Guardian: “It could be Project 55 or 54. I’ll always push further if I’ve got a goal in mind. But I break down those goals into smaller ones to make them achievable. You’re pushing the boundaries of what is humanly possible so it can be quite overwhelming.”
Can he swim a 55-second time? With what will be an electric atmosphere in the Danube Arena at the 19th FINA World Championships Budapest 2022, anything is possible.