Adam Peaty has apologised after being criticised for 'disrespecting' the significance of the Commonwealth Games.
Previously, the swimmer had taken home the gold medal in the 50-metre breaststroke, however, he received a wave of criticism after comments he made on Sunday during a BBC interview. The comments were made after he suffered a fourth-place defeat in the 100m breaststroke which he is now taking responsibility for.
Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, the 27-year-old said: "I want to be held accountable for that. It came across very wrong [yesterday]. I did address it. I'm sorry for anyone who misunderstood that. A lot of emotions yesterday.
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"A lot of people understand that sport is like this and I reached the bottom of the bottom yesterday. To bring myself up with the crowd, with my own mind, that's a great result.
"That was the only one I hadn't won in my career, so I can retire now! No, but I'm very happy with my progress there. I don't care about the stats, tonight was about racing.
"I'm honestly looking forward to having four weeks off now, completely resetting and doing a winter from September which I haven't done since 2019 when I broke the world record. I know what I need to do now. I'm so glad I got that loss earlier in the week because these wins now feel so much better."
Peaty added that he got swept up in the emotions of the day after his surprising loss against fellow English athlete James Wilby. After being asked how he felt after the defeat on Sunday, he remarked: "It doesn't feel amazing, but it doesn't feel bad either. It'll probably be my last attempt tomorrow, but I'm not bothered about it."
He added: "The Commonwealths to me, in the grand scheme of things...it's about two years’ time (the Olympics). That's no disrespect. I'm still four weeks into my programme, I can't put that expectation on myself.”
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