Adam Peaty says he has had to drastically change his relationship with winning, no longer tying his results to his general happiness, in order to recover from the most difficult period of his career and pursue a potential third consecutive gold medal in the 100m breaststroke at the Paris Olympics.
“My relationship with a gold medal now is I know that it won’t solve any of the problems that I want it to,” said Peaty, who is working through his final preparations at Team GB’s pre-Olympics preparation camp in Reims before his arrival in Paris. “When you’re younger, you’re like: ‘If I get a gold medal, it’s gonna solve so many problems.’ And it does, but it’s not going to solve the problems that I seek [to resolve]. And obviously now I do it to win, I want to be the best. I am the best. I’ve still got the world record. And I’m going to have a good challenge come Paris. That’s the only thing that gets me excited.”
