Adam Peaty held Mel Marshall in a tight embrace before removing his gold medal and placing it around her neck.
They hugged again and only then did Britain’s greatest swimmer go to family and friends to celebrate his redemption win.
The glory was his but Peaty knew getting him to the start line in a frame of mind to achieve it had been down to Marshall.
“Mel has been there for him through thick and thin,” double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington said. “Adam knows he couldn’t have done it without her. They’re an absolute dream team.”
The dream was more a nightmare when Peaty coughed up his eight-year unbeaten record in the 100m, then lost his head.
But those writing him off overlooked the Marshall factor and an athlete-coach relationship with the deepest roots.
Just how much she has meant to his career, since starting to coach him when he was only 12, can be revealed today.
The answer is to be found in a text Peaty sent in Tokyo last summer after he became the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title.
“He thanked me for being his wing woman,” Marshall said. “He’d become a father, we’d come through a pandemic, I’d been like his second mum in some ways.
“It was a really nice message. A normal guy, appreciating my role, knowing we’ve always got each other’s back. Come hell or high water we find a way.”
They did so in Sandwell on Tuesday and although it was the one medal missing from his collection, Peaty instinctively knew who deserved to have it.
“Mel is Miss Motivator,” said Adlington. “If you are going through tough times she is that person you want by your side. She’ll have built him back up.”
Peaty has a theory that becoming a dad changed him and he has had to fight to remain the ‘lion’ he has always considered himself.
“Fatherhood changes your brain, never mind your perspective,” he explained. “Being a parent naturally releases more cortisol, the primary stress hormone, which reduces confidence.
“It’s how your brain works when you’re an adult and you’ve got children and responsibility - and it’s been the hardest thing to overcome. To try and stay me and be this true athlete.
“I’m almost unrecognisable from the person I was before George. Whereas then I was fighting myself to stay the person I was, now I’m like ‘no, you’re a father, accept that and you can still be really good, great even’.
“I have grown so much and I have such appreciation for the people who support me every single day. For that I am so grateful to Mel.”
