Peaty is seeking to emulate fellow Englishman Adrian Moorhouse, who won breaststroke gold at Seoul in 1988.
Advertisement
It was hardly surprising as he had just won the Olympic 100 metres breaststroke final with a world record and a remarkable 1.56 seconds ahead of second-placed South African defending champion Cameron van der Burgh. No one can describe what an Olympics is like until you’ve been there. “He has got two world records in two days”. I was under pressure, so I tried to focus on no disasters.
Peaty was an overwhelming favourite to win gold given his qualifying times and he more than delivered when it mattered most.
“Tomorrow’s the big one”.
“Going into this race I was so composed, so calm, I wasn’t even thinking of that. It’s not like someone is holding a gun at the end of the lane, so I’ve got nothing to lose”.
“I did it for my country and that means so much for me”, Adam told BBC Sport.
The British swimmer cruised to victory in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 57.13 seconds Sunday night, shattering the mark of 57.55 he set a day earlier in the preliminaries.
Peaty lived up to that expectation with a stellar swim on the opening day of competition in Rio as he trimmed 0.37 seconds off the world record he set in London previous year.
That was sheer joy on his 21-year-old face, not relief, when he saw he’d lopped another.42 seconds off the world record he’d just set Saturday morning, the very first time he touched the water as an Olympian. “That’s my game plan and I’m sticking to that”. “It’s definitely the best feeling I’ve ever had”.
The Welsh swimmer finished second behind world record holder Team USA’s Katie Ledecky, who also won gold in the 2012 London Olympics.
Click on the video above to watch Peaty make history in Brazil.
“For the last seven years I have been racing the best in the world and making my way through the ranks. So proud love Nan x”, she wrote. Do I feel invincible? Peaty has the 4x100m medley relay to come on Friday and believes he can continue to improve towards Tokyo 2020 and beyond.
“You never put a limit on anything”.
In the women’s 100m butterfly, Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, Dana Vollmer of the United States and Canadian Penny Oleksiak all reached the semi-finals in breaking the 57-second barrier but refugee team star Yusra Mardini hogged the attention. I was so close to getting it. [But] tonight I wasn’t even thinking of a time.
He has come a long way since childhood, when he was scared of having a bath.
Advertisement
Peaty, who trains at Loughborough University under the guidance of coach Mel Marshall, had been untouchable in the heats and semi-finals, setting his first world record of 57.55 in the heats.
