World Record holder and 2024 Paris Olympic silver medalist Adam Peaty will be taking time away from swimming after his time at the Paris Olympics. Peaty notably tested positive for COVID-19 in the middle of competition.
Peaty said in an interview with the BBC, “If my heart wants it, my heart wants it, and I’ll absolutely sign that contract with myself to do it.” He continued, “Maybe a long way away. But I think I’ve got to step away from the sport, really, because it’s just hurt too much this time..It really has.”
“I don’t really know what the answer is,” Peaty said of his future plans. “If my family needs me, my family needs me… You can’t lie to your heart and if the heat does want it, the heart does want it. I’m going to enjoy today instead of worrying about tomorrow.”
Peaty tested positive for COVID-19 early Monday morning, just hours after winning silver in the men’s 100 breaststroke on Sunday night. His symptoms got worse after the final and he tested the next morning. That test came back positive for COVID-19.
Peaty took five days off of competition and returned for prelims of Great Britain’s men’s 4×100 medley relay on Saturday morning. With his return, he spoke about the last week, “Everything’s come at once. Since Covid, it’s just every day waking up with a different thing.”
“The medical team’s been brilliant. I think it’s just a victory getting on that start block there,” Peaty continued. “Hopefully, that’ll give my body a nice little push for tomorrow.”
Peaty swam on the men’s 4×100 medley relay in finals, splitting a 58.16. He holds the seven fastest 100 breaststroke relay splits in history, with his fastest being a 56.53 from Tokyo.
Peaty took some time away from elite competition in 2023, withdrawing from the British Swimming Championships/World Trials in March due to mental health reasons. He subsequently did not race at the 2023 World Championships.
Peaty’s coach Mel Marshall is set to move to Australia to take over at Griffith University. Peaty spoke on the move of his coach today as well, “Tonight it could have been emotional. It was her last one with me, in that sense, and it could have been my last one.”
Peaty continued, “I don’t know – I think for her, she’s got an incredible future ahead of her, and the talent that’s hopefully going to swim her way in Australia. She deserves it. She deserves to lead that platform and deserves to give the best to them.”
Peaty won gold in the men’s 100 breast in both the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games. He was just 0.02 seconds short of gold in Paris, swimming a 59.05 to tie for silver while Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi won gold in a 59.03.
Swimming is a time consuming sport. I wish him the best.
There will be more time to spend with his family, which is always good too.
I’ll come right out and say that Adam is not my favorite personality, but I respect that he was trying to grow the mass appeal of swimmers as athletes. Swimming only gets one moment every four years to really shine on the big stage, and ultimately it’s Gold that makes someone immortal.
I’m sorry but peaty seems if he’s not in top he don’t want to play . If he had dominated this Olympics this article wouldn’t exist . I’ve never been much of a fan but I do respect his accomplishments.
Great swimmer. Sore loser.
Great swimmer. Sore loser.
Agreed and it all started with his goofy “project immortal “ I’m not sure what he was thinking with that one . Like a dbz villains evil plan that’s I think he thought sounded cool. In all seriousness he’s the fastest breaststroker ever but has a very fragile ego and emotional as a midddle school girl
He is arguably the greatest breaststroker of all time, but his biggest mistake was to believe his own hype and that he was effectively invincible. The Project Immortal stuff was nothing more than an egotistical pipe dream. Yes, you are one of the greatest the sport has ever seen…but every dog has his day, so I don’t buy any of the PR around COVID and ‘tough times’ in the build up to the games. The reason Peaty didn’t do the three peat wasn’t because of a slow pool, Covid or any other alibi, it was because he is 29 years old and is in the twilight of his career.
Bit off topic here, but Milak and his coach are parting ways. No information on who his new coach will be.
Yes!
I hope Milak consider taking a full year break, no swimming at all, do anything else that he wants to do or to try.
Right after Tokyo, McEvoy took clean break from swimming for a year, traveling and rock climbing and when he got back to training he had different mindset and training methods that more suited him, and he’s better than ever.
And when Milak comes back to swimming next year, maybe he can consider training in a different country to relieve pressure from Hungarian media. It worked wonders for Marchand and McIntosh.
A year in Australia is great for many young people. Perhaps he’d fancy that.
Maybe not through project immortal but the legend will forever stay immortal for the way he redefined the sport
One of if not the greatest breaststrokers of all time
Peaty and Kitajima are the two greatest male breastrokers of all time.
For GOAT status, you have to be able to win both events.
Kitajima was 2004 and 2008. My dates below are not correct.
Kitajima swept both the 100 and 200 Breaststroke in two consecutive Olympics (2008 and 20012, I think) so he’s the GOAT in my book.
This guy raised the bar on sprint breaststroke.
Selfishly I would love to see what he can do in 4 more years fully ready to go.
However, he is still a champ whatever he decides.
Enjoy the time off bro!