In the midmorning sunshine on Australia’s Gold Coast, the most dominant swimmer in British history launched his hulking frame through the water, easing to victory in the heats of the 100m breaststroke. A self-proclaimed ginger kid from Uttoxeter, Adam Peaty looked effortless despite the 26C heat and unfamiliar surroundings of the outdoor pool. He did the same in the semi-finals and in Saturday’s final is one of the biggest gold medal certainties at these Commonwealth Games.
The former world champion swimmer Mark Foster is in no doubt of the names Peaty deserves to be uttered alongside. “He is our Michael Jordan or Usain Bolt,” he told the Guardian, “as long as he doesn’t get injured he will not be beaten until he retires in my opinion.”
Some events at the Commonwealth Games are processional, the sport derided as outdated and uncompetitive, a relic of a bygone era. The 100m breaststroke is no joke, boasting the best two swimmers in the world, but Peaty is so far ahead of his nearest rival, South Africa’s Cameron van der Burgh, that it has become a question not of if he will win, but how fast he will go.
“I think I have to retire and give it a few years and come back when he’s older,” Van der Burgh said, only half jokingly. “It’s not even breaststroke he’s doing any more, he’s swimming a new kind of stroke, like a metamorphosis between butterfly and breast.”
The Commonwealth Games are held dear by Peaty as the competition where he made a global breakthrough, in Glasgow in 2014. Still only 23, he has not peered back over his rippling shoulders since, amassing a haul of 26 medals, including 17 breaststroke golds at Olympic, world and European championships.
His 100m breaststroke world record is 57.1 seconds and he owns the fastest 11 times in history over the distance. “If he doesn’t break his 57.1 seconds record he will die with that world record,” is the opinion of his British team-mate Ross Murdoch. It is certainly no more likely to fall to anyone else over the next decade than Usain Bolt’s 9.58sec 100m world record.
Peaty’s coach Mel Marshall watched from the stands on Friday, assiduously writing notes in a pocket handbook on both her own charge and other swimmers in the field. She is a rarity in elite sport, a female coach entrusted with a world-class male athlete. In the top four divisions of men’s football in Britain there are no female head coaches, nor are there in Premiership Rugby nor cricket’s County Championship. Andy Murray briefly selected Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo to be his coach but women are scarce at the top level of men’s tennis coaching, too.
A former elite swimmer herself, Marshall has trained Peaty at the City of Derby swimming club since he was 14. He claims growing up in a family of strong women means he is accepting of her demands. “I think Mel is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met – just because she is so versatile,” he has said. “She can overcome any challenge. She is a unique person in herself, not that we just have a unique relationship.
“That combination of my nan and my mum, and all the women in my life, I think it makes it easier for me to work with Mel. I think a lot of athletes prefer a male coach but I have worked with Mel for so long and we are so effective I don’t think gender is an issue at all.”
But Peaty’s close friends say what sets him apart is a brawler’s spirit. He spends hours in the gym every day perfecting his trademark “flying” press-ups, which he does in sets of 20 three or four times a day. He also consumes 8,000 calories a day, more than three times as much as an average man.
Medals are his primary motivation but Peaty has made no secret of wanting to make enough money so that he can secure his family’s financial future and claims his working-class background sets him apart from many top sportspeople.
Son of Caroline, a nursery nurse, and Mark, a supermarket caretaker, money was so tight when he was growing up that when they could not afford his first competitive kit, neighbours and family banded together to offer donations. Peaty’s grandmother, Mavis, has gained fame in swimming circles for tweeting regularly about her grandson and woke up in the early hours of Friday morning to watch him swim in the heats.
Perhaps the most incredible factor in Peaty’s success is that it might not have happened at all. When he was a young child he was terrified of water and even afraid of bathtime, after older brothers Richard and Jamie told him that sharks came through the plughole. Eventually, a friend took him on a trip to a pool and he immediately took to the water. Almost two decades on, his rivals in Australia must wish that chance visit had never happened.