Swimming is a fingertip sport with wins measured in hundredths of seconds. When Adam Peaty is on form though, the margins are much wider. Peaty is one of those rare athletes who has redefined what’s possible in his event. He was the first man in history to swim the 100m breaststroke in under 58 seconds and is still the only man in history to swim it in under 57. He owns every one of the 10 fastest times in history, and 17 of the top 20. It so happens that the swimmer who owns the other three, Qin Haiyang, is the man Peaty needs to beat in Paris if he is going to become the second male swimmer to win the same event at three consecutive Games. The other was Michael Phelps.
You can talk about Peaty’s size 12 feet, his 38cm biceps, and 117cm chest, you can talk about his high stroke rate, passive glide time, his propulsive kick, and his quick recovery, and you can talk about his competitive streak, which is absolutely pitiless. But according to Bill Furniss, the head coach of British Swimming, if you really want to know what makes Peaty such an extraordinary athlete, you have to start with his work ethic. Now, no one gets to be an Olympian without one of those, but Furniss says Peaty’s is something else. Furniss has been an elite coach for 30 years, and never seen, or heard of, anything quite like it.
