Adam Peaty looks like a lonely gladiator on the block as, seeing me arrive at his training camp in Tenerife just after seven on a Wednesday morning, he raises his right arm in silent greeting. Work has already begun in the watery sunshine and another four hours will pass before Peaty opens up about coming back from a breakdown just over a year ago.
Peaty wears his goggles and a white cap and, seconds later, plunges into the pool to start training as he aims to become the second male swimmer in Olympic history, after Michael Phelps, to win a third successive gold medal in the same discipline. For Peaty this is the 100m breaststroke, an event in which he remained unbeaten for eight years until his shock loss at the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
