Adam Peaty has revealed he “hated” swimming after taking a break from the sport and insists he will not be defined by medals and records with one year to go until he begins his bid for a fourth Olympic title in Paris.
The Great Britain pool star, who won 100metres breaststroke and 4x100m mixed medley relay gold in Tokyo three years ago, announced this year he was taking time out for personal reasons, stating: “Very few people understand what winning and success does to an individual’s mental health.”
For a serial winner like Peaty, it appeared some uncharacteristic defeats during an injury-hit 2022 had taken their toll following an eight-year winning streak which had transformed him into a global Olympic icon. Change was badly needed.
The 28-year-old is now back in full training with his long-time coach Mel Marshall and aiming for more Games glory next year, but admits his goals have changed and that winning titles alone will no longer make him happy.
“I’m not defining it by a gold medal any more,” he said of his new mindset. “I couldn’t really care about the gold medal. It’s just a material. I’d rather have a great experience and happiness and challenge myself to defend my title.
“The performance is what matters to me, that’s a personal thing with me and Mel and my team. If I think of it (gold), it doesn’t really do it for me.
“I’d rather walk out into lane four, happy in my life and with the people around me and find joy in that performance. (But) I’d be devastated if it didn’t pay off and give me the result I want, of course.”
Peaty admits he fell on tough times that changed the nature of his relationship with the sport, having joined his first club at the age of nine.
The fame, the attention and the hype, combined with external pressures on him as one of Team GB’s poster boys at each Olympics, may just have caused him burnout.
“I did fall out of love with it, I pretty much hated it at a point,” Peaty says of swimming. “You’ve got to really think ‘I’m more than this, let’s try to find the person behind all this’ and that’s where the difficult stuff is.
“I’m in a very happy place now, balanced, (there are) still long days but I don’t let my own brain get the better of me.”
What that all adds up to is a new approach for his third Games, a fearless outlook and an acceptance that there is more to life.
The City of Derby swimmer — who burst on to the scene with 100m breaststroke gold in Rio seven years ago — believes, worryingly for his rivals, that he is more “calculated” than ever. Peaty said: “I’m not going to let the numbers on the scoreboard define who I am and define my happiness any more. Why should I be miserable for something I work relentlessly for?
“You can still be disappointed in results but not let that bleed into the rest of your life. Sometimes in life you feel like you’re being pronged from all angles and you turn in on yourself, creating more pressure. I’m more balanced and more calculated now.
You kind of use victory and glory and success as a mask.
“I never like to let people down but you wonder if it’s worth it any more. I am becoming more aware of that person inside me and you know what really matters. Who are you going to be when you leave the sport? That’s the important question to me.”
Peaty is discovering the man behind the goggles. Win or lose in France next summer, the eight-time world long-course champion will not be putting everything on that final. He has found before that it overshadows all else.
“You kind of use victory and glory and success as a mask,” he said. “If you have this, nothing else matters, you define your whole life on this one result, which is bizarre, and you’ll do anything for that result, which is isn’t a healthy approach. You can still get that result with a different, more sustainable approach.”
This is all at odds with the man widely regarded as the dominant breaststroke swimmer of his era, world record holder over 50m and 100m.
Uttoxeter-born Peaty explains why something had to give, sitting out the British Championships and concentrating — almost entirely — on Paris.
He added: “It was very, very hard to do something when you don’t know why you’re still doing it. Mentally, it was tough and not normal tough, like there was no oil in the machine. Truthfully, the one that really matters to me is the Olympics.”
Adam Peaty drives the CUPRA Born, the brand’s first fully-electric performance-driven hatch. For information visit cupraofficial.co.uk
