Adam Peaty opens up on Olympic future after Paris 2024 heartbreak (2024)

Adam Peaty cannot bring himself to watch it back. ‘It was such a slow time that there's no point,’ says the fastest breaststroke swimmer in history. ‘That’s my brutal honesty. There’s no point looking at it for any other reason than entertainment – and that’s not entertainment I really want.’

Peaty is, of course, referring to the 100 metres breaststroke final at the Olympics in Paris in July. In one of the shocks of the Games, the two-time defending champion was beaten by Nicolo Martinenghi after only clocking 59.05sec - just 0.02sec behind the Italian winner but some 2.17sec off his 2019 world record.

What we or Peaty did not know at the time, however, was that he was racing with Covid. In the immediate aftermath of his silver-medal swim, the British star said he had a sore throat, but it was not until the next morning that he tested positive for the virus. So how did he really feel on race day?

‘Everything above my neck was probably a one out of 10,’ he admits to Mail Sport. ‘The morning of the race, I really struggled to warm-up. I felt very airy and dazed. Normally I could do 50m underwater, but I had to come up at 15m. I couldn’t breathe. So you’re already taking a performance decrease of 70 per cent. My head was just in a bad place.’

Did he consider pulling out? ‘No, that would never be an option,’ insists the 29-year-old. ‘Even if I lost a leg, I would still try my best to be there because I had trained too hard to pull out.

‘It's not like another sport where if I pull out from a game, I can play the next week. I’ve got to wait four years for that same experience. So I just hyped myself up and reverted to something I've always known: If in doubt, just go for it. Go out there and kill it.

‘I did my absolute best with the cards I was dealt. But you are obviously going to feel a bit of disappointment.’

Under the circumstances, it was remarkable that Peaty still managed to claim a silver medal. Perhaps even more memorable than his thrilling final, though, was his emotional post-race poolside interview. Talking through tears, he told BBC reporter Sharron Davies: ‘In my heart I’ve already won. I’m not crying because I’ve come second, I am crying because it took so much to get here.’

That is one bit of footage Peaty is happy to watch back. Almost four months on, he is still regularly reminded of it by members of the public, who have been inspired by how he came back from depression, alcohol issues and injury to make it on to the Paris podium.

‘It’s great that I could show that much emotion and show I could be content with the journey, not just the outcome,’ says Peaty. ‘I think it was a good message for anyone who was watching that we can't define ourselves by win or lose. It's a good message today and it'll still be a good message in 10 years.

‘A lot of people still come up to me now and say what an incredible interview it was. Some people come up to you with various illnesses, some maybe even terminal, like someone on my AP Race Clinics that we met, and say I've given them hope or inspired them.’

Peaty swam in another final at the La Defense Arena after recovering from Covid, the men’s 4x100m medley relay, when Team GB finished an agonising fourth. It was after that race that Britain’s greatest swimmer hinted at retirement, declaring he ’might have to step away from the sport’ because ‘it hurts too much’.

While Peaty has been back in the pool since Paris, as well as keeping himself fit through running and gym work, he says he will not compete again until at least 2026. Further ahead, however, he confesses that a post-Games holiday to Los Angeles with his fiancée Holly Ramsay has whet his appetite for the 2028 Olympics in the Californian city. Peaty also predicts a Team GB legend and LA resident will come out of retirement.

‘I went for dinner with Tom Daley on one of the nights and, obviously he's retired, but I can't see him not doing LA,’ reveals Peaty.

‘It’s just an incredible place. America is almost the home of modern sport and modern entertainment and they're going to put on such a great show. So it did get me thinking.

‘But I want to just take that rest before I get too excited and sign myself up to a local pool out there! You need to stop and check the engine and make sure that it's all going well and fuelled up before you rush into another thing.

‘The last three years have had many good experiences, but so many bad experiences as well, with injury, illness, burnout and mental health. So I'll be taking time off to really think about what I want out of the sport because it does hurt and gives those bad feelings, with the illness and the unfortunate timing.’

One thing that would guarantee Peaty returned for a fourth Olympics would be if the 50m breaststroke was added to the programme. Currently, freestyle is the only stroke with a one-length race at the Games. But World Aquatics have requested that breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke sprints all be included on the schedule for LA28.

Peaty is the world record holder in the event, as well as a three-time world champion, and believes training solely for the 50m would require him to swim 4,000m a day, rather than his old gruelling daily schedule of 12,000m.

‘It’d be very exciting if they add the 50m and that would expedite my return to the Games,’ says Peaty, who has a four-year-old son, George, with his ex-partner, Eiri Munro. ‘The 50m is an event I can train for and still potentially win the Olympic Games, but also have a job, which I would really enjoy. I wouldn't have to be a full-time athlete.

‘I want to be a man who gives back and gives his best to his family, especially in the future if I have more children. Being selfish to win a swimming race is not really worth it when you are putting everyone else on the line. There has to be more balance.

‘I like to have a little bit more going on than just waiting around to go too training. I just want to do a lot more in my life than just swim, especially in my young years.

‘The 50m me would allow me to do that. The 100m wouldn't at all. But we don't know when they're going to make that decision, so we've got to stay ready, relatively fit and not get too fat!’

If World Aquatics fail in their bid to get the sprints added, and Peaty’s only option was to go for a third 100m gold, he says his chances of returning would only be ’50-50’. He is also currently without a British-based coach, as his long-time mentor Mel Marshall is swapping Loughborough for the Gold Coast to work for Swimming Australia.

‘Who will coach me? That's a question I don't really have an answer for or really tried to find an answer for just yet,’ admits Peaty. ‘Where I would train, I don't know either. Again, that all relies on the decision of the Olympics if that sprint comes in, or if I want to do the 100m if the sprint hasn't come in.’

For now, Peaty is putting more of his energy into his own coaching and mentoring work with AP Race, the business he launched in 2019 to guide young swimmers. He is speaking the day after returning from Saudi Arabia, where his company have just set up a swimming academy, but insists his latest venture is not another example of sportswashing by the oil-rich state.

‘It’s helping people learn to swim,’ explains Peaty after taking time out from filming with his car sponsor CUPRA. ‘There are no learn to swim providers there, so it’s about safety, but also taking a nation that's not strong in swimming and providing that pathway for them to produce Olympians in the future.

‘We talk about sportswashing and we always think there is money involved, but we haven't taken any money from anyone in Saudi. This is a business like we would be investing in anywhere, funded by myself and the people in AP Race.

‘It will get criticism because of certain things, but it's an incredible place. It's growing very, very fast. I can’t think of another country doing sport like them right now. To potentially be part of that in the future is very exciting, whilst hopefully making the whole nation safer with the skill set to swim.’

As well as growing AP Race, Peaty has been spending some of his time out of the water delivering motivational speeches. He cites talking in front of the Bristol Bears rugby team as his most ‘daunting’ gig to date.

‘You have got 40 lads all about 150kg,’ says Peaty. ‘But they kind of get the best out of you and you fire off each other.’

Peaty, of course, is no stranger to stepping out of his comfort zone, appearing on Strictly Come Dancing during another time out of swimming after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Should he fancy a second stint on reality TV, Mail Sport suggests he would be a perfect recruit for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins given his extraordinary fitness and mental strength.

‘SAS is an incredible show, but it’s not something that I would be looking for in the short term,’ adds Peaty. ‘I want to do stuff that I have a huge passion for and be around likeminded people who want the best out themselves and set themselves a challenge.

‘Sometimes in reality TV, you don’t find that. It’s not something that makes me hugely passionate. It’s not for me. I have got better ideas.’

Such as, most probably, a shot at Olympic redemption in LA in four years’ time.

Adam Peaty drives the CUPRA Born VZ, the brand’s high-performance and most powerful fully-electric hatch. For more information visit www.cupraofficial.co.uk.