Adam’s sister, Bethany Peaty, said: “Nan has made headlines recently, outshining my brother Adam Peaty who just won GB’s first gold medal of the 2016 Olympics!”
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Her time of four minutes, 1.23 seconds was a second and a half quicker than her semi-final swim but still nowhere close to American Ledecky, who smashed her own world record by almost two seconds. It was Great Britain’s first medal of the games and the country’s first swimming medal since 1988.
Footage of the moment showed Ms Williams shouting: “Yes!”
Adam Peaty set his sights on a second medal for Great Britain after becoming the first British Olympic champion of the Rio Games. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Monday August 8, 2016.
Peaty is the current occupant of an exclusive sport club; currently holding European, Commonwealth, World and now Olympic titles in the same event.
After her grandson scooped gold – and smashed his own world record for the second time in two days – she proudly told her 3,400 followers: “My Grandson has done it”.
“I feel like there is a massive amount of fate gone on with this journey”, she added.
Just in case there was any doubt how happy she is, Mavis changed her Twitter biography to: “Proud Nan to a World Champion Breaststroker”. I’m going to push forward – I’m sure every gold medallist says this but me and Mel [Marshall] operate differently and we are always pursuing excellence and self-improvement. Someone tweeted last night that we should aim to get me up to 100,000 followers, so that’s my target.
She said: “He’s got eight more years in him”.
“I touched the wall, looked to my left and I was like, ‘Where is everybody?'”.
But she nearly missed his record-breaking moment – after she fell asleep on the sofa at her home in Uttoxeter, Staffs., moments before the race was due to start. “He can’t stand seaweed”, she said.
He said: “I’m going to keep pushing the boundaries that no one has pushed before”.
His father Mark Peaty told Sky’s Sports Correspondent Paul Kelso he was “ecstatic” at his son’s victory – the first Olympic win by a male British swimmer for 28 years.
He returned to social media a few hours later, posting a picture of himself in the pool with eyes shut and arms outstretched seconds after taking gold. “So proud, love nan x”.
Earlier this month, she told the Radio Times: “I’ve never flown before, never been further than France”.
Widowed Mavis has travelled across the United Kingdom watching Adam win gold including at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 and the European Championships in London this year.
Mavis also said Adam wasn’t always so fond of the pool and was terrified of the water as a young child and wouldn’t even get in the BATH.
He said: “Aged 15 I hated racing finals because I was so nervous”.
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Ms Williams added: “He worked so hard for this and he deserves it. When you are facing the opposition you have no choice to retreat and it really helped me come on”.
