Adam Peaty insists his focus is Strictly on the Commonwealth Games after swapping sequins for Speedos.
Eight months after taking time out of the pool to dance on prime time TV, then breaking his foot in the gym, Britain’s greatest swimmer is back in the fast lane.
For all the disruption to his day job, Peaty is ready to fly the flag for England - adamant time spent on the dance floor, in particular, has sharpened him up in the water.
“I’ve been doing this since I was nine,” the three-time Olympic and Commonwealth gold medallist said. “Swimming up and down.
“There’s a certain time in your life where you’re like, ‘Wow, this is exhausting, this is tiring’ because you’re doing the same thing.”
That time coincided with Peaty becoming a parent, moving the family home and trying to maintain elite fitness through a pandemic. There was a pot of gold at the end of the workload but it exacted a price.
“When you have a child, when you move house, when you do all this and then Covid happens, so many things change the way you look at the sport,” he said.
“I’m a solo athlete, I don’t rely on others, so doing something totally different like Strictly, learning how to work with somebody else, I really enjoyed. The different stimulus was great for me.”
Dancing in front of the nation for weeks on end is no small matter. Listen to Matt Dawson, Rugby World Cup winner, who accepted the Strictly invite in 2006.
“Nothing in my life will ever compare to the horror of dancing on live television,” he said. “Just thinking about it now makes me want to throw up.”
Peaty breaks into a smile.
“I get that, but I’m a very chilled person,” he said. “I never really talk myself out of anything. I’m one of these people that if I’m scared of something I’ll go all in and attack.”
It didn’t look that way as a young boy with an acute fear of water - particularly bath time - thanks to brothers telling him sharks may come up through the plughole.
But he has long since been the one to fear in water and the fact he had the backing of his long-time coach Mel Marshall meant he was able to throw himself at Strictly with a clear conscience.
“The plan was always to take breathing space after Tokyo, particularly off the back of the pandemic,” she explained.
“These guys were craving life more than ever having been locked in for two years, so when the Strictly opportunity came up I thought, ‘yeah, different stimulus, different voice’.
“His dance partner Katya was exactly the right sort of person for him: up front, really direct, really challenging for him.
“Yes, he wasn’t growing in the pool but he was growing in himself in terms of a different experience and set of challenges.”
Whether that is enough to compensate in Birmingham for the training time lost to injury time will tell.
But betting against Peaty tends not to pay well.
